The Hidden Dragon
by PoolHero
Summary: What do you have to do just to survive in a world that is not your own? In a world where psychopaths with god like powers run rampant, where demons try to devour you every step of the way. You do All you can. SI reincarnation fic in the world of "tales of demons and gods."
1. Chapter 1

Xianxia reincarnation self insert

 _Disclaimer_ :all characters and mentioned universes belong to their respective owners and/or creators.  
This is a work of fiction.

' _Italics means he is talking to himself /inner voice'_

"inverted commas" means a normal conversation.

"different languages" means speaking in a foreign language.

[encyclopedic texts]

 _Thoughts of other characters_

* * *

 **Alive...again.**

* * *

"Welcome" the formless being said.

"Hello. It's nice to finally meet you in…..soul?" I answered. "Has anyone ever told you that you sound a lot like Morgan freeman"

"Yes, you're not the first" the formless responded.

"So, heaven or hell?" I asked.

"Hear my offer first. I'm sending you somewhere. Somewhere you know as a fictional world." the being stated. "I will grant you gifts to help you along your path."

"Why would you do that for me"

"I find you interesting. What I gain from this is something you can't comprehend, but you will gain what you have always been after"

"You make it sound like I don't have a choice" Before such a mighty being, I was even less than a mere ant. I knew I didn't have a say in this matter.

"That's because you don't. I could give you the illusion of it but I'd rather be honest"

Even though I appreciated his honestly I was still annoyed. I muttered the word "Bastard" intense pain instantaneously radiated throughout my being. "Arghh!"

"Mind your words boy. I will not tolerate disrespect."

"No! F%ck you! You bastard!" I was tired of this being. If he was going to take me out of existence he would have done it sooner. So I know he wants me for something. I won't say need because that would imply that I was important which I wasn't.

"I admire your will. I made the right choice choosing you. Come"

A force rendered me immobile as I floated towards the brightest point of the room.

"You are just an experiment. I would tell you that you're not special, but you already know that don't you? So do not delude yourself. The world you're about to be reborn into is a cruel and hard world. If you become too arrogant, if you slack off or stagnate, if you ever get comfortable, it will devour you, you will lose it all."

An energy invaded my being, with it inside of me I felt like I lost something and gained another.

"Indeed, what an interesting attribute. These gifts of mine will help you along your path. And consider the circumstances of your family a form of motivation"

"I hope for your sake that you survive, and thrive. We shall meet again My experiment, do not betray my expectations." There was care? in its tone.

"I am not an experiment! I will become the strongest and kill you one day! OK maybe that sounds a bit too edgy, borderline cringy but I do hope you go to hell!"

"Boy, I created Everything, hell included." the being said as I was sent away through a tunnel of sorts. "It's not like you'll remember what happened here anyways"

* * *

I was being pulled "Woaahh!" the explosion of colours and blurry shapes hit me hard. I felt something soft and cozy wrap around me while I was still screaming my head off. I remember dying, how I'm I still alive? The tunnel. I was raised once again by a large blurry figure "hey!" I tried to yell out but I was only able to produce a mess of screams and gurgles. "wahhh!".

I felt drawn to an aura that was projecting what I assumed to be love.

"Shush little one, mother has you now. It's all right" the warmth I felt from her gave me peace and comfort. Her deep blue eyes drew me in, her voice lulling me to sleep.

* * *

It's been a year since I came to this world and I have to say it's not that bad, not bad at all. People definitely developed faster in this world than back on earth. Because I could already begin standing for very short durations, I could pronounce very simple words. I was nearly driven insane with all the boredom.

Here we go again _sigh_.

"Shen Yue, you're such a cute boy!" my mom's friends would constantly pull my cheeks while praising my looks like now. Can you blame them, well what do you expect when you're a Sasuke Uchiha ripoff. My flowing hair had a dark midnight blue which complements the clear night blue of my eyes.

Right if you haven't guessed it yet, I'm in the Divine continent (imagine if I was called Shen Long, heh dragon balls) yep, in the world of "Tales of demons and gods" The people of divine continent majorly had Asian like cultures and influences. It's closest to Chinese cultures and mannerisms but slightly different.

Back to me.

I was supposed to be the third rate villainous character that everyone forgot about after the first arc. I do not know if there's someone behind my reincarnation into this world but if there is, I would like to say a grand go $%&€ your $ *# you $ *#%! (*Same to you! Damned fictional character!*)

I'll be dammed if I let that sh!t happen to me. I already made my resolve to live and live well in this world. And without power you can't achieve any of that, OK I also had the urge to become stronger.

Plus I know Nie Li is the protagonist of this world with his immense plot armour which I didn't have. Talking about Nie Li that guy must have some deep-seated mental issues. How do you live that long and after all that stress you've gone through you revert back to your child self and still be the same? We're talking about 100s of years of depression, memories of pain, anger, betrayal and trauma crammed into a 13 yr old's mind and you expect us to think that everything would still be the same? I call bs on it. One glaring form of his mental issues would be his one sided obsession with a child who he constantly manipulates. I'm too hard? I know kids mature faster here but that girl was still just a child she didn't have as much experience as he did and yet he still aggressively pursued her. Damn I'm ranting again!

You notice that I don't talk much about my dad, that's because I actually don't like him. He would cause the destruction of our family, what a stupid tool he is. But that doesn't mean that I don't respect him. Plus my mom is the one who spends the most time with me. And actually enjoys it.

I already made plans for my future making use of my meta knowledge and cheat abilities. Yes you heard right cheat abilities like this guy right here, the Encyclopedia which provides me accurate information on the attributes, flaws, make-up and uses of various things, of course I had to accumulate knowledge from sources to make the info more comprehensive. And I had meta-knowledge of this world, so I had info all right. I found out about this ability when I looked through an open book my mom had left on her bed. The encyclopedia compiled all the info in it and presented it to me. I'll have to experiment more with it since I believe that this ability has the potential to be op, it's like the gamer's observe/appraise.

The second one was a warning sense I called active premonition

* _cough* spidey sense *cough*_.

I discovered it when I nearly fell off the bed. It's transmits a buzzing ringling sensation to my head. I'll have to train my body to work seamlessly with my A.P(active premonition) sense. I know these abilities are more than they seem and I will soon have enough time to experiment with them. I really did discover amazing things on that bed….quite literally.

What? My abilities are haxxor? Have you seen the mc? Let's take away the endless plot armour he has and he's still a hax. He has knowledge on 93% of everything in this world, he's a master in all fields not even including combat and with all that He still reverted to his past self, with the a hax that's called the temporal demon book. The very heavens are watching out for him!

And all I have is an all encompassing universal encyclopedia and a ripoff spidey sense. But my abilities are enough for me, you know why? Because there are no useless abilities, just useless people. I will turn these abilities into something that surpasses all others!

' _Lady can you please not squeeze my butt'_ my mom has really hyper active friends.

"Look at him pout! Awww~" you're doing this on purpose right.

* * *

 _ **12 years later**_

Who's the angelic boy? the good Samaritan? The most loved child in all of glory city? Me!

Since I started leaving the compound to explore glory city. I interacted with the people in a very civil manner, I acted as a good Samaritan to them. It's not hard at all, all you have to do is treat people like actual people. Right! What a surprise that most members of the sacred families just don't get that. It was slow process building my image at first, since my branch of the sacred family is known for their arrogance and needless cruelty. But when they saw that I actually meant it, people accepted me, especially the average joes the common people. Sure I get angry sometimes but I never threw my weight around. My family was wealthy, I donated some money to those that needed it and it all came from my own pocket funds. Of course my family members didn't like that I was associating with "commoners", they saw it as a disgrace, the only thing holding them back from lashing out at me was my "Extraordinary genius" status. But who cares what they think? The only thought that matters to me is my mom's and she's very supportive.

Concerning my genius, it's about my eidetic memory and problem solving capabilities.

My encyclopedia has expanded, with all the books I've read and the sources I've accumulated over time made it damn great.

I've discovered new properties it had as well. It can recognize martial arts and point out the flaws but the conditions were that I had to either see the full display of the martial arts or read about it to have a source for it to deduce from.

I also discovered new ways to use the premonition sense. I can use it now to avoid mistakes in alchemy and inscriptions study and production. It's other property involves auto aim and lie detection. There really aren't useless abilities. I won't lie it took me a 8 years and a sh!t ton of hard work to get the abilities to such levels. Can you imagine my sleepless nights, my broken bones, my blood, sweat and tears. The results of your work never lie.

The combination of the encyclopedia and the premonition sense made life much more better.

When they found out that I had a cyan soul realm. They began really calling me an extraordinary genius. Yeah, my theory is that it was caused by my soul adding to this body's previous one. But I've never been comfortable with all cultivation techniques they provided for me, they weren't really suitable for me. That's why I barely ever use it. My soul force was already at 89 but I suppressed it to 78, I had an innate ability to fine tune and control my soul force.

I've been compiling sources to try to create my own specialised cultivation ,technique, it's been unsuccessful so far. It's really important that I find a proper technique before I reach the bronze rank or things would get really bad, "sh!t hitting the fans"level bad. I felt like I was forgetting something but I just don't know what.

The Holy Orchid Institute's Apprentice Fighter class, Would begin in a few months from now. So I had to achieve my immediate aims soon.

Today I would be taking the master alchemist exams at the Alchemist Association, I've been a senior level assistant alchemist for a while now, that's how I acquired various books on the subject that provided the encyclopedia with more sources. That was second to the reason of acquiring a shield. See even if my family was banished the city lord and the other families wouldn't be able to actively seek me out when the association has my back…. Yes insurance. Oh, and money too. I'll have to leave Glory city after the event of the betrayal. I'll need all the money I can get to live a comfortable life. That means billions and billions of demon spirit coins.

"Oh, hey Xiao Lan" I waved at the receptionist.

"Young master Yue, it's nice to see you again. Are you headed for the library?". She responded with a smile

"No, I'm here for the master alchemist exam" I answered confidently.

A wide smile became visible on her face.

"I knew you'd come for it sooner or later. After all young master Yue, is very knowledgeable" she gestured for me to follow her. I already knew all the procedures needed.

The hallways were deserted today. Guess everyone's busy with preparations and stuff. I went through the doors, noticing the two elderly looking alchemy masters, garbed in white robes. They had a bored look in their eyes, a hint of surprise surface as they observed me. "Student Yue, are you sure you're sufficiently prepared"

"Honourable masters, I am" I said cupping my arms in respect. One thing that bugs me is Asian speech and mannerisms makes it seem as though I'm worshipping them. I know I'm just complaining. Moving on.

"Good. On the table are approximately 360 papers. Each paper contains various alchemic questions. You are required to take a total of twenty pages and finish them within two hours."

Well to make sure I wouldn't be accused of cheating I asked one of the elders to choose the twenty pages for me.

Grabbing a brush from the rack I went to work.

As I looked over the questions the answers appeared in my vision.

[Iron grass and blood soaked ginseng acting as the catalyst.']

[Leaf of the peacock tree stabilizes the mixture while maintaining potency.]

My pen zoomed through papers.

…

"Masters, how were my answers?"

"You did amazing, student Yue" "Spectacularly well" the both of them praised.

"Thank you masters"

"I am called Yu Han Bing, and my colleague here is Mu yang"

"Honoured teachers please call me Shen Yue" I responded with a nod.

They looked at each other, smiled and nodded.

"What good manners you have young one"

"We would like to ask you some questions on practical enhancements."

"It would be my pleasure, teachers"

"Good!"

….

After a long discussion that involved a lot of formulas and other processes. The alchemists had even wider smiles on their faces.

"Shen Yue, you're outstanding" Mu Yang commented.

"Be patient for a while. The both of us will meet the president concerning your tests. You won't have to take all other tests"

"I'll have to disturb you, esteemed teachers"

* * *

Elder Yuhan came to get me while Mu Yang went to the director. He led me into the council room. Where I saw the poster board as he proceeded to explain its use. Alchemists would post unsolvable problems they had, hoping they others would provide answers or insight they might have missed. I remembered that Nie Li solved most of these to show his value to the association. Me? I needed it even more. It's not like problems ever end, I'm sure that by the time he gets here he would have his fair share of problems to solve. Allowing him to display his skills.

The elder stared at me as I grabbed a pen and went to work. Old man you're about to be shocked!...

"What should the ratio of Snow Grass, Nine Immortal Grass, and Dragon Gall Grass be? According to the alchemy theory, combining these three herbs would definitely produce an extremely strong antidote. However, what should the exact ratio of these herb be? To this day there has been no answer to it," the alchemist Yuhan Bing murmured.

[Dragon gall grass should be changed to Solani Grass. The ratio is 3:1:2.]

I wrote the deductions of the encyclopedia unto the board. Moving from one question to another.

"Absolutely brilliant!" Yuhan Bing exclaimed at my sides.

This is how it feels to be constantly praised huh? I can see why Nie Li got addicted to this.

"Teacher, I just tried a bit" downplay your results and let them exalt you.

Yuhan Bing had an incredulous look on his face. _He even dares to say that he tried a bit! We spent ten years working on that question alone and still remained unsuccessful! This child is an abnormality_

(*one thing I hate writing the most is "You dare!" *)

"Ah, President Gu Yan, Director Yang Xin, you have to see this"

That's when I heard Santa Claus behind me. "Ho Ho Ho! Kid you're not bad at all!" The president of the alchemist association continued "Your answers to the questions are unique and insightful.

People lately have turned to martial arts because of the monster attacks. The alchemist association has never been the same." so that's the reason it was so deserted. "Who would've thought we'd be able to welcome a genius like you! How splendid! I have seen your abilities, your talent surpasses the master alchemist level!" he said happy tone.

I could tell them about the effects of the purple haze grass, but that would be too greedy of me….ok OK I just didn't need the amount of money that would give me. Plus I have to leave a path for that bastard mc to survive.

"Tell me, how do old are you." the president asked.

"I'm thirteen, Sir" his eyes went wide at my answer. What can I say I looked exactly like a genin sasuke but with midnight blue hair and light blue eyes. Maybe I should designed my clothes to look like the Uchiha's ' _Not a bad idea'_

"How do you know all of this. How were you able to deduce such solutions" the president asked.

"Sir, it was all by the help of my master, he taught me well. And he was also the one who even got me to come to the Alchemist Association to get an Alchemy Master title" I replied.

"Who might your master be? We must pay a visit to him," Gu Yan said.

"My master is very unsocial, he doesn't like to be disturbed. Even by me" I answered with a sigh.

 _His master must be a hermit_ Gu Yan pondered.

I noticed Yang Xin trying to read my body language for any clues. Too bad I look like an Uchiha(heh) I just had a thin smile on my face. And maintained a relaxed and calm disposition.

"Director Yang, bring him the books of Senior Alchemy Master, medal and robe!" Gu Yan decisively said.

"Yes!" Yang Xin immediately answered.

I was left alone with the president in the council room.

"Sir there's another reason I came here as well " I started.

"Oh, what would that be" he asked.

"I would like to form a partnership with you on the behalf of my master" I pulled out a bunch of papers from my 4-dimensional subspace aka storage ring.

"These elixir formulas here are for the Soul Nurturing Pills, Soul Concentrating Pills, and Soul Tempering Pills. My master informed me that in the Sacred Empire Era, the Soul Assembling Pill was one of the low grade elixirs. The Soul Nurturing Pill was an intermediate grade elixir, it's is ten times more effective than the Soul Assembling Pill. The Soul Concentrating Pill is a high grade elixir, whose effect is at least a hundred times greater than the Soul Assembling Pill. As for the Soul Tempering Pill, it's a top rated pill. Its effect a thousand times more effective than that of the Soul Assembling Pill. Even Legend rank Demon Spiritists would get an effect out of it." I concluded.

The president was almost trembling looking through all these formulas and their effects.

What? I'm just making glory city a better place while making money off of it as well. I mean, the Mc did borrow it from a source right? Well I created mine from scratch. plus I only made three I'm sure he has a plethora of other pill formulas with the still remaining two. Do you have any idea how long it took me to build these formulas from my meta-knowledge, the amount of reading I did? The process of trial and error? The time I spent progressing step by step. I deconstructed the soul assembling pill formula and other various pills. The process would've been a lot harder if it wasn't for my premonition sense. It worked in conjunction with the encyclopedia to direct me towards the right steps. When ever I was about to make a wrong move it's would slowly buzz, the buzz was muted at first but I learned to feel it. Back to the matter. I made these pills through my sweat and blood so no I don't really care much about the mc.

"How did your master acquire these"

"My master travelled all over the divine continent acquiring vast knowledge. He only arrived at Glory City a few years ago, however, he does wish to make himself known. Therefore, he sent me as his representative." I said.

"Only a few years ago? That must be why I have never heard of him" he nodded.

"Well originally My master just wanted to donate these to association. However he needs an immense amount of resources to continue his research.

He needs to spend lots of demon spirit coins, hence, these three elixir formulas cannot be given to the Alchemist Association for free. If the association should make these three elixirs my master only needs 35% of the sales profit.

I wonder if President Gu Yan has any objections?

Even if my master takes 35% away, the Alchemist Association would still be able to get a profit of over 50%." I said with a confident smile.

"Definitely, definitely!" Gu Yan hastily replied, "The Alchemist Association is willing to offer fifty percent of the profit to your respected master!"

I shook my head, then replied.

"No, my master only needs the 35% and if esteemed President Gu Yan is willing, you can assist the commoners who wish to pursue alchemy"

The president expressed his admiration.

"To finance their studies, would mean that the influence of the association would grow! As for the selling procedures, your honorable master can send someone to supervise. If there is anything that is not up to his satisfaction, we will immediately rectify it!" Gu Yan said.

"Everything will be left to you President Gu Yan and the Director Yang. I trust the both of you and I'm sure my master would as well. Furthermore, I believe that the two of you aren't short sighted." I lightly laughed.

"Absolutely!" he vigorously nodded.

"Alright then" I shook his hands and handed him the rest of the formulas.

He was absolutely stunned. _the herbs used in the elixirs are so ordinary and common! The cost is absolutely shockingly low!_

The director Yang Xin came back some time later with books, a master alchemist robe and a medal.

"From today onwards, if you have any problems, you can look for Director Yang directly. She will definitely do her best to help with your request," Gu Yan said turning to me.

"This robe is a little too big for you. Wait for the new robes to be ready, I will personally send it to you. I wonder, where do you live? How do I contact you in the future?" Yang Xin looked at me and asked.

"I don't want my family members to know of it yet. So please keep it a secret for now. You can come look for me at the library, or in some time the Fighter Apprentice class at the Holy Orchid Institute." I answered.

Director Yang Xin was stunned at my class level in the institution, she saw it as a waste of my talents as she offered to help me get into the genius class when the institute begins. But I turned her down. I needed to rely on myself for somethings and I had plans in place already. I just accomplished one today.

I left after saying my goodbyes.

* * *

The introduction of the new pills went the same way it did in cannon. The alchemist association was working around the clock to meet the crazy demands as they raked in hugh cash. Yeah it's only in the beginning stages and I had already made close to 700 million demon spirit coins, the market was booming, people from everywhere running in to purchase the pills, since they weren't as expensive as the soul assembling pill but we're still many folds more effective than it. Even the city lord valued the pills to the point where he personally visited the alchemist association to procure large amounts of them.

I used parts of the income to purchase a ton, literally, of purple haze grass. I won't be selling it, it's for my own personal use and some for my mom as well. Since it nourishes the soul force and the body too.

I find a new discovery of mine very disturbing.

I don't know how it never came to me to check my soul form by using a soul crystal after all these years. How do you forget something so important. Well not anymore.

I was sat crossed legged on my bed, with the soul crystal held in one hand. I pushed my soul force into it and the crystal begins to change in colour. A cyan coloured nucleus formed at the centre of the crystal with a multiple of small golden orbs and then came the darkness. The darkness spread out through the crystal leaving only the golden orbs in the cyan coloured centre as visible. That was the most scared I had ever been since I came to this world. I thought I was some form of great evil, the encyclopedia corrected that.

[Golden Cyan soul sea. Chaos form, Abyssal Void attribute] well…...I'm pleased. Guess the soul is the best representation of yourself. Void and chaos huh. The endless abyss, absolute nothingness, the origination of all things. I am _very_ _satisfied_.

[Cultivation technique:

Chaotic Abyss - Void god technique.

Chant: Ex nihilo nihil fit. Creatio Ex nihilo.]

Where is all this info coming from? Is what I would've asked had I not been absorbed into an endless realm at the uttering of the chant.

 _Clanngg Clanngg_ sounds resounded through my soul realm as it went through a change. It sounded like hammers pounding down onto my soul, reforming and moulding it with each beat. My body was rapidly absorbing energies in the atmosphere to feed the process.

I definitely couldn't pass out here, I resisted the urge to rest, to take just a little break from the process I resisted it with all I had. I had the feeling that enduring this process is necessary for my cultivation.

….

It took a full day but I endured the complete process. My soul realm was still intangible but it now formed a wispy spherical black abyss that was constantly slowly rotating. The almost sphere figure was dark and endless.

A dark foggy aura was visible on body. The aura gradually receded as I rose from my meditative pose. _Crack_ my bones snapped into place with each stretch leaving my comfortable and cozy. I took an elixir pill and after adding warm water and other herbs into the purple haze mixture I dipped myself into the wooden tub. The warm water relaxing my tense muscles, my soul form absorbed every piece of spirit force from the bath mixture and the elixir. Soul force from the soul realm circulated through my system, coursing through my whole being, enhancing my physiology, strengthening my bones and muscles, amplifying my senses, pushing me to superhuman standards.

Grabbing another soul crystal I pushed my soul force into it. It gave me an approximate soul force value of 96.

I had to stabilize my foundation, making sure it wouldn't be unstable or shoddy. I also have to increase the intensity of my physical training, enabling my body to withstand and utilise my soul force.

…

My cultivation technique allows my soul realm to contain nine dark/chaos/void attribute spirits. I could use other attribute spirits but they wouldn't be as effective as the dark attribute ones. Since the void attributes would be complimented by void like soul realm.

With each demon spirit integrated my soul force would increase explosively. And new abilities will be uncovered. There's a reason why void cultivation is called the most mysterious and secretive. That's because no one actually knows what it entails further down the line. Each gained ability is unique to the soul of an individual.

It all worked out well in the end. I got a cultivation technique from the encyclopedia, I wonder why the encyclopedia didn't give it to me earlier. Did I ever ask? No. I also never checked my soul form, with a soul crystal. I'm sure it never got info of my specific soul realm but I was still pleased that I now had a technique suited 100% to me.

* * *

I slowly waded through the thick forest. Tall trees towered over me. With each step I made my way towards my destination. My premonition sense warning me, guiding my every path. From the forest through the hills and valleys, past the mountains and after a three day long journey, it came into view. The once majestic walls stood dull and broken, the vibrance of the city lost to time. Dilapidated buildings filled the city of ruins.

I moved with utmost cautiousness. This place was being inhabited by giant apes, And giant apes are very territorial aggressive so. It took 16 hours of constant searching to find the destroyed statues. In the dark of the night I noticed a large plaque with ancient words.

These ancient words would be the key to getting into the tombs and the subsequent treasure site.

I took out the spider silk from my storage ring and secured it onto the plaque.

I then said out loud "Those who follow me, shall be honoured. Those who oppose me, shall perish!" moving steps away from the plaque the ground started to slowly sink. I held tightly onto the silk rope. A powerful suction force pulled me into the pit, my hands strained as I held the rope to slow my descent. The suction force was still acting but not as pronounced. After some minutes of making my way down the rope I reached the solid ground. I shook my arms to get blood flowing back into them, and then took out a wooden torch from the storage ring.

Five passages came into view as the cave was illuminated. Going by the info I had acquired and my premonition sense I went through the north the passage I was about to take another step when _**B**_ _zzz_ my sense warned me of a trap. I grabbed a pebble and tossed it forward. It activated the trap mechanisms when it landed. Arrows rained down through the passage as the traps were activated, once it ended I resumed walking. After some hours I came upon a majestic hall. The hall looked to be an underground palace. Moving into the hall, I stood still. Dried skeletons that looked to be of children and and adults drew my attention causing me to pause. Bones were littered throughout the hall. This place was probably a refuge where they brought the children and elderly to keep them safe. But after the city was destroyed they couldn't escaped and most likely starved to death. I took a moment of silence for the corpses and then went to work looting them. I took a silver grade dagger and a soul stone. Soul stones can be used as catalysts to further raise your cultivation rank. They had demon coins and crystals that I also proceeded to acquire.

Leaving the bone field I moved towards the large coffin that was proudly displayed in the centre of the hall. The coffin was covered in mysterious inscriptions. I recognized it as emperor Kong Ming's. It was exactly as described in the books. I felt as though I stood before raging waters, ripples of energy radiated from the coffin. The energy was the soul force that had yet to dissipate, I felt the surge of my soul realm the rotation of black abyss speeding up and with one more step I placed both hands on the coffin as a pulled of light shot up from it.

Energy began to bombard my soul realm causing me immense pain. I felt like my body was about to come apart. The abyss vortex spun as it rapidly devoured the energy, like a black hole that swallows all in its path. My soul sea was becoming larger and larger as the intense white light looking soul force was being absorbed into my soul realm. I held on by pure will alone, any lapse in my concentration would be my demise. I held on as black sweat evaporated from my skin, as immense pain flared over and over again from the tear down and rebuilding of my physique. I felt as though my body was being remodeled. The energy subsided as did the pain. I opened my eyes as the environment came back into view.

"Whoo!" power was surging through my veins. I felt awesome. The increase in my soul force was very noticeable as I had broken through to enter the 1-star bronze rank with a soul force of 185.

I poured bags of water over my body and drank the rest. The thirst I had was just that high.

After drinking a bit more I sat down in a meditative pose and began to cultivate so I could fully assimilate and stabilized the changes.

….

It took two days to fully stabilise and to get my body accustomed to my new rank. The energy also enhanced my body as it now looked like a slim built Saiyan. My muscles were as hard as rocks, and much more defined that they ever were in both lives as I had lived.

I had already taken the abstruse gem stone that increases training speed and nourishes the soul force. I also took the page of the demon temporal book from the coffin. The page would soon be leaving my hands, I have absolutely no inclination to commit suicide by drawing unwanted attention to myself. I would have left it in the coffin but there's a chance that Nie Li won't find it this time without the energy in the coffin.

I was in the large chamber after leaving the hallway and passing through a secret door hidden in the stone wall at the end of the passage.

On the very first pillar was a square lantern. The lantern that contained the shadow devil demon. The shadow devil would be a very suitable demon for my soul realm since it had a darkness attribute. I loaded the lantern into my storage ring. I wouldn't be able to use it yet as my soul realm isn't at the silver rank yet. I needed all of this to survive. The mc has plot armour I'm sure he has a ton of other alternatives to get power from.

I walked to the treasure heaps that littered the whole chamber. Taking some empty storage rings amongst the heaps I loaded a single small heap of golds coins amongst the mountainous heaps and two gold grade armours. I also loaded some scrolls on alchemy and inscriptions. I couldn't be too greedy here, since I had to make sure to cover my all tracks. Everything paused as a single jade pot earned my gaze. I walked towards it to get a better view of it and I couldn't believe my luck! This was a nightmare demon pot, it was amongst the other rust ridden and trash like objects. How did Nie Li never notice this? It's most likely that he was too engrossed at finding the page from the temporal demon spirit book and getting the shadow devil demon spirit in the lantern. The pot was also inconspicuous looking, without taking a more observant look at it, you would miss it and since it was among the trash like objects the others probably discarded as nothing of too much value. After storing the pot, I looked through every nook and cranny of the treasure piles especially the trash looking ones. That was when I felt a calling, something very similar to my abyss soul. Something full of chaos something dark, my abyss soul realm wanted it, wanted to be with it like finding a long lost partner.

And then it went away. "No! Wait!" I tried calling out for it again but I couldn't find it. I retraced my steps searching for the thing that interacted with my soul on such an extraordinary level. I spent hours on hours searching for it so much so that I got agitated and mentally exhausted. I lied down on a treasure heap trying to clear my mind, I slowly drifted off to sleep. In the vast nothingness of the endless darkness, something took form, Chaos converged and condensed into that form. The heat of creation consolidated the form as it drifted through the eververse.

"I get it" I said, slowly rubbing my eyes. When I tried getting up from the heap I felt something long and hard(heh)under my hand. I looked at the a sheathed sword which was as black as night. There were intricate golden patterns on the black sheath covered with rust. Holding the black hilt, I pulled out the darkest sword I have ever seen, it was a straight double edged sword similar to a Chinese Jian sword. The sword was black from the tip of the blade to the hilt. It looked like an ordinary black sword as the blade itself had no design.

My soul instantly surged, the sword resonated with my abyss soul realm, it was like finding a lost piece of myself. I pushed my soulforce into the sword as it greedily sucked it in, I started chugging down elixirs just to feed it enough soulforce. The sword glowed with dark light as it took in my soul force. The sword slowly turned ethereal as it entered my soul realm and was ducked into the endless void sphere, the abyss vortex which continually bathed it with darkness. A connection that would never be broken was established between my soul and the sword.

I was tired and drained but I still held on. I innately knew the abilities the sword possesed now and the ones it would have in the future. This sword would only interact with someone who had a pure void soul realm. The one property of the sword that was similar to a soul weapon was its ability to be a level stronger in accordance with my own growth as well. So now that I was in the the 1-star bronze rank, the sword would be in the silver rank. A cut from the sword wouldn't heal unless the affected part was removed. That was due to its chaos property that constantly devours. It was like antimatter to matter. This was the same as the energy absorption property of my void sphere.

Willing the sword from my abyss vortex it reappeared in my hands, the sword had a pure dark glint, it barely even reflected light, It was like I held darkness which was shaped like a sword in my hands. That was how dark the sword was. I put the sword back into its now golden and lustrous sheath.

…..

This was a more fruitful trip that I would've ever imagined. I guess that high risks really do have high rewards. I continued to erase all clues to my presence as I backtraced my steps to the entrance I came through. And climbed the silk rope to make my exit.

* * *

 _Holy Orchid Institute, Fighter Apprentice class._

I already missed the first day of class at the institute. My return journey from the ruins didn't go smooth at all. I was attacked by a group of demon beasts. Causing it to take longer than I wanted. During the week I was able to test out the sword which I now called Devourer. The edges of the devourer ate through every form of resistance, the stronger the resistance the harder it was to cut through it. Devourer doesn't just cut through things, it assimilates/absorbs through its edges. So Every time it makes a cut it actually eats through it in a thin line. I'm sure that the area of effect could be expanded and the ability strengthened.

Devourer was a growth type sword, I found out by accident that it could also absorb other swords and demon spirits stones. Devourer's form would turn ghost like, it would then spread out over the swords, and demon stones like a dark fog, and when the devourer would regain its shape all other swords and demon stones would disappear.

It was sad that it can't do that in a battle state, but no ones complaining. Yeah, it was almost comical that after eating through thousands of swords and demon spirit stones it still stayed the same.

Walking into the class I took a seat and talked to some of my classmates while I waited for the class to begin. The class of 30 odd students was gradually filling up as people took their seats. Ye Ziyun had a look of surprise when she saw me before she took a seat at my side. Well she is pretty but who isn't? The women in this world are amazingly beautiful each and everyone of them. They all have their charms that makes them unique in their own rights. It's just a perspective thing. I mean with with so many world ending beauties you'd think the world would've ended by now.(heh) Can't wait to smash! Soon very very soon. I'm young, rich and handsome.

From all my loot and the proceeds from the alchemist association I am proud to say that I have become a billionaire in spirit coins.

"Ouch" I felt a very hard pinch at my side drawing me from my thoughts.

Ye Ziyun looked at me with an annoyed expression.

"You disappeared for a whole week! and even missed the opening class. And what happened to your hair."

Yeah we're close as friends though. Although we're engaged we're still really good friends the best I would say. She was pretty lonely after her mom died, so I kept her company most times. And since I'm nothing like the previous Shen Yue we really hit it off. About my hair, I went with a more modern look by having a low side fade with a bun undercut. Yes a man bun, bite me.(Imagine sasuke with blue hair and a bun.)

"Oh, madam Ziyun so you're saying you missed me? And I really look handsome?" I smiled at her. Her brilliant purple hair smelled like cherry blossoms.

"Who misses you? I'm just saying you're going to fail this class if you keep skipping it" She answered turning her head away but not before I saw a tinge of blush on her cheeks.

"Wow, Ziyun my wife you really care!" I lightly laughed teasing her.

That earned me an even harder pinch on the ribs.

"Ou ouch! OK I was just kidding" I said. Not paying mind to the whispers and hushed murmurs of other classmates.

"Who's your wife? You're crazy"She snapped with a playful glint in her eyes.

"So what did you guys do yesterday"

"You should have been here! Nie Li was giving me weird looks and then he talked back at teacher Shen Yue…." she explained.

I felt a heavy gaze on me and I turned to look at the source. Nie Li looked like the son of naruto uzumaki and ichigo kurosaki. Shining Orange hair and blue eyes. I waved at him and sent him my brightest smile, his eyes going wide with surprise and then squinted in thought. Operation 'mind f%ck' is in effect. ' _Nie Li, I'll rape your mind'_ Hahahaha. Xiao Ning'er sat next to him eating some of the pastries she baked for him.

Once the bell rang signalling the start of lessons. The teacher who was also my aunt, Shen Xiu came into class, the class quieted down As she assumed position. Nie Li and the gang walked to the back of the class and stood there. I guess they were still under punishment.

"The three of you return to your seats!" Shen Xiu said, looking at Nie Li, Du Ze and Lu Piao.

She started talking about inscriptions patterns and there types.

' _Ah, the disgrace starts'_ so right now, the influential people should be outside the classroom.

I warned her about it earlier but she disregarded my words.

"The Sacred Flaming Patterns has 66 foundation patterns. This pattern, for example….," Shen Xiu drew a totem formed from many patterns coming together on the blackboard, "This is the Scarlet Sunburst Pattern. This pattern was created by Sacred family's first generation house master. It's the most powerful Bronze pattern! This pattern is made up of 36 foundation patterns -" I tuned out the non-stop droning of Shen Xiu I slowly fell asleep on my desk.

Ye Ziyun shook my shoulder waking me from my peaceful slumber. Look I was tired alright, I've been trying to refine demons spirits in the nightmare pot but it's all been unsuccessful l had to reach the silver rank first. Slowly stretching I turned to witness Nie Li's word against the sacred family's inscriptions.

"This inscription pattern was originated from the seventh volume of the Book of Divine Lightning Fire. The original name of this inscription pattern is called Lightning Flame Burst Pattern. It consisted of 60 foundation patterns. It can be considered a little complicated, but some smart ass decided to cut part of the inscription pattern, slightly changed it, and turned it into this nondescript Scarlet Sunburst Pattern. With no real combat capabilities, it could only be given to the Sacred Flame Pattern practitioners to study."

"Bullsh!t! Ridiculous! No such book exists in the world!" Shen Xiu angrily shouted.

"Yes it's does and He's right, the inscription is a plagiarized version with no combat capacity" I lazily added. "And the book is on the third counter of the first shelf at the highest floor in the school library"

Shocked gazes landed on me. Basically Saying how could I go against my own aunt.

The elders who came into the room sent someone to go fetch the book. And after the existence of the book was confirmed. Even more unbelievable gazes landed on me.

Nie Li continued to point out the ages which contained the inscriptions. Educating her on the demon spiritists code of conduct. Absolutely disgracing Shen Xiu. Since I had also pointed out the existence of the book, it would seem like Shen Xiu Was The one ignoring the obvious.

 _Sigh_ I really hate this shit. But I did warn her earlier

…..

I waited for Ye Ziyun to leave the library before I approached Nie Li.

"Yo, Nie Li"

He face took on a darker expression.

"What do you want" he spat out.

" Have we had issues before?" I questioned

"I just don't like you" he replied

Sending him an observing look I responded.

"Well you're not much to look at either. Plus I'm only interested in women.

Look I really don't know what problem you have with me but I'd like to make things clear. I see how you look at Ziyun, I'm not even going to tell you to stay away from her because she has the choice to choose who she wants. But don't think I'm just going to let you get your way. And I don't know what your problem is with me but

"Ziyun's name isn't something you are worthy of saying. If I were to find out that you're following Ziyun again, I'll hit you at once!" he said coldly.

"And you think I'll just let you? Don't kid yourself. I'm way stronger than you are" I stated.

"Hah is that what you think?" he snorted amused.

"Oh, I know so"

If it was any other time I wouldn't be as confident as I was today.

But At this moment this guy is at his weakest. If I don't use this opportunity to beat his ass I'll never get the respect I deserve from him. Yes, I am an opportunist.

"Let's have a duel at the combat grounds right now. No soul force just pure physical might" I said with a sinister smile.

He had a sinister smile on his face as well.

"What are we waiting for"

…..

We stood facing each other on the training grounds. "Begin!"

We ran at each other meeting in the centre. He threw his leg forward for a straight kick to which I dodged under executing a low sweep. He jumped over it and flipped backwards to regain his footing. He has the experience but I had an acute danger sense and the reflexes to put it to use. We went at each other a kick here a punch there I took advantage of the openings and the fact that he wasn't very used to fighting in his 13 yr old body. And he used his experience to land hits on me. This was a valuable experience for me, since I was fighting an actual combat genius with hundreds of years of experience. I used him to assess my abilities and get better at using them.

…..

Six hours later and we were still at it, the place was dark, lamps illuminated the area. A crowd had gathered at training grounds watching us fight each other. We were both exhausted and battered but he was more so. Since my body was previously enhanced by the spirit energy in the tomb. This Bastard is skilled! I would've been long defeated if it wasn't for my warning sense working overtime, and my encyclopedia providing pointers and weak points in his moves.

I had to finish this before I got too exhausted. I weakened my defences and allowed him to land a solid hit to my solar plexus, it was much harder than I thought it would be, but he lulled himself into thinking that he won when I doubled over. I held back the lump in my throat and putting all I had into my legs I jumped up with a straight fist, delivering a beautiful uppercut to the bottom of his chin that took him off his feet as he fell flat spread starfish on the stage.

The damn punch was really hard, my breathing was hard and heavy, I exhausted and shaking all over. I was so tired that a single push would make me fall over.

"it's…. _huff…_ my….victory" I said almost short of breath.

Extending my hand towards him as a gesture of peace he grabbed it and got back on his feet.

During our fight he was observing me, he should know that I worked hard to get to where I was.

"Yes it is" he answered with an even more brighter smile. The noble mc bastard and his redeeming qualities. During our fight we would throw words at each other and I managed to convince him that I wasn't like the other members of my family.

He recognized and acknowledged me and I him as well. I knew he still had distrust towards me but it wasn't as high as it was before.

With his arm over my shoulder we led each other step by step away from the training grounds and when we were alone I pulled something out of my storage ring.

His eyes widened as he became frozen in shock. ' _Time to get the greatest shield of them all'_

"I know you're an inscription specialist. I don't have the level of ability you do, I can't even begin to decipher or read this stuff. So here you can have it, I hope it proves to be very helpful to you" I handed him a page of the temporal demon spirit book. "I hope you understand that I am not like others in my family." Yea, just had to remind him.

He slowly grabbed the page as if it was all just an illusion. Turning back to me "I won't forget your help, you have my, Nie Li's thanks" he cupped his arms.

"No need, no need. Let's just help each other out" I said with a smile.

* * *

Months passed as Time went by fairly fast. Nie Li introduced new pills through the alchemy association, talking about the alchemy association the three pills I had given them have been taking in way more cash than I expected all the more better. I also bought the pills Nie Li made two of which were Scarlet Body Enhancing Pill, which greatly strengthens the body, allowing one's physique to improve greatly and the Nine Transformation Pill, which can save lives by helping you recover from severe injuries. I reversed engineered the pills to get the formula, and now I could make mine if I needed to.

And since I've heard of the fact that my family was actively seeking out Nie Li, they must have begun with dark guild's plan to destroy glory city. Since I gave him the page from the demon temporal spirit book he's been well I won't say kind but amiable. But with my family acting the fool, we've kept at a distance to each other.

Today was the day of they yearly test.

This test will affect the futures and fates of every student in the Holy Orchid Institute. The results of this test will determine the class the students will be put into. Gradually separating the levels and standing of individuals (elitism).

In the institute's martial field, flags were swaying flags swayed to the beat of the drums, the beautiful clear skies providing a serene environment.  
The much anticipated year examination is about to officially begin. This, to every student, means a lot.  
Every student from the Fighter Apprentice class, and Demon Spiritualist Apprentice class had gathered at the martial field.

I saw my brother Shen Fei's dispute with Nie Li over his engagement to Xiao Ning'er. This was the sole reason why I came late, just so I could avoid my brother's idiocy.

These people are set in their ways, and no matter how many times I try to set them straight I end up failing. It's not like I really care that much about them anyways. The only one I care about in my family was my mom and some of the non-indoctrinated children.

I really don't want to take this test no one else has a soul realm like mine. I mean everyone else's soul is brightly colored and vibrant and mine is just pure black with a cyan nucleus. How do I explain that? I already knew my rank, I had a soul force of 148 with a 2-star silver rank. Unbelievable right? Well it's mostly thanks to the abstruse gemstone that increased my cultivation level to three times. And all the elixirs and training I had undergone.

I don't know how but I was at the forefront, looking behind me I saw the smiling faces of my classmates. ' _These traitors'_ They must have all subtly slowed their steps and stood behind me.

"First round of the strength test. who'll take it first?" One of the teachers asked towards Shen Xiu.  
Shen Xiu looked at all the students in the Fighter Apprentice class. Steeling my nerves I walked forward "I'll be first"

I stood before the strength testing machine, I controlled my arm strength to exactly 600 and sent a punch at the machine.

The teacher in charge announced.

"Test result: 5-star Bronze rank, 600 strength!"

I repeated the same twice with the results being exactly 600.

I heard the loud exclamations of the students behind me.

Moving towards the large soul crystal. I controlled it to emit a force of 500.

Let's just get it over with.I placed my hands on it and injected soul force into the crystal. My soul force began to fill the crystal. I heard even more exclamations but it wasn't because of my soul realm's color. It was because of my soul realm's force.

"5-star Bronze rank Demon Spiritualist, soul force of 500!"

It was what the other students were saying.

"Wow such a pure cyan soul realm!"

"What a genius!"

"And it even has a golden nucleUs!"

Looking at the crystal, the displayed soul realm was black in my eyes. The only vibrant colours were the cyan and golden orbs in the nucleus. Does this mean that I'm the only one that's truly able to see my soul realm for what it really was? It would make sense for it to be that way since its _**my**_ **soul**. (Or maybe it's just the work of the author) but no one's complaining. Weird stuff always happens in this world.

Praises rained down on me when I turned around. Their previous words at my family's abuse of power thrown to the wind and forgotten. What fickle people.

I looked at my aunt who had her chest raised in pride. She smiled, looking at me.

The subsequent events went the same way they did in cannon. Nie Li's gang showed amazing results with some of them even managing to break the crystal. Nie Li controlled his strength and soul force to be at a constant 100. when I got home I learned that my aunt Shen Xiu had quit her job.

Well then I guess it was time to go home.

* * *

I went into my mother's courtyard. Reaching her hall, I knocked.

"Come in"

I smiled at her.

"Hello, Mother how are you today"

"Little Yue, I hope you've been good" she asked after hugging me.

"of course Mother"I nodded.

"Good boy. My little Yue is such a handsome gentleman.

Go on now greet the Patriarch and your father"

"Yes, yes, how could I keep them waiting, I'm so punished." I remarked

"Hush you, now go along"

"OK mother, I'll be back"

I walked to the main hall where the patriarch sat in the highest most decorated majestic chair. My father standing next to him.

"Shen Yue, greets lord patriarch and Father" I cupped my hands and bowed in greeting.

The patriarch's stoic face softened, I knew I couldn't hide my rank before him. He's very presence radiated power.

"I see. Shen Yue, you did well" he said. My father smiled at that. Obviously proud.

"Thank you lord patriarch!"(teach me how to be cool) I really did want to ask him.

"Little Yue, you can take your leave now the Patriarch is busy"

"Yes, old man" I saw a vein nearly pop on his face. Heh looks funny every time.

"Shen Yue, takes his leave" I cupped my hands again

* * *

The moonlight illuminated the secluded spot I was in. I had been putting off integrating with a demon spirit for a while now. But I got the best chance to do so today.

I pulled the Shadow Devil Spirit's Lamp from my storage ring. Holding in my arm I inserted soul force into the lamp causing the spirit to exit. But instead of escaping or even trying to leave, the spirit approached me. It was reaching out to my dark abyss. I covered the shadow devil spirit in soul force as it turned into a dark shadow and went into my soul realm. It felt at home in my spirit realm I was able to easily integrate with the shadow devil, it accepted my soul realm making the whole process go smoothly. Information on its abilities filled my head. After integrating with the demon spirit my soul force surged pushing me to a 3-star silver rank, soul force 2700.

I called upon the shadow devil, merging with it. My body instantly became invisible. The void state of the shadow devil working in 110% effect due to my void type soul attribute.

Exiting the invisible state. I called upon the shadow sickles, they were almost as dark as the devourer strapped to my side. The sickles extended to a meter long. I tried altering their forms, shapes, length and it was all possible. A simple swipe across a massive tree trunk caused the tree to be cleanly cut apart.

Again I activated it's third ability which it never had when it bonded to Nie Li. Looking at the shadow cast by tree. There was only a micro moment of darkness before I reappeared in the tree's shadow. Shadow Teleportation that can be utilized to travel via shadows in a certain diameter. It was a much appreciated ability.

Over long distances I could use it for four times before having a cool down time to recover soul force, in short distances I could use it for much longer as long I could put up with the disorientation. "Shadow devil, I'll call you ghost, now" the shadow devil sent me a feeling of happiness. "Good, ghost"

…..

I would have thought that the bloody nightmare pot had a personal vendetta against me, If it had any consciousness.

After thousands upon thousands of demon spirit stones, I finally refined a hundred, excellent growth type demon spirits.

And do you know the results of refining all the hundred excellent growth type demon spirits were? 0. Yes, zero. I had to restart the whole process for three times! Three times of going through 100s of thousands upon thousands of demons spirits. The only thing that stopped me from destroying the pot was common sense.

Now though all the rust on the pot disappeared, it also had a new darker shine. My chaos attribute has begun to slowly enhance the nightmare pot. Making the dark/abyss properties of it more pronounced.

I ended up with 160 excellent type growth level demon spirits which I was about to refine, to get a god level growth type demon spirit, like my demon spirit, ghost. Wasn't going to be easy.

I refined the 160 demon spirits to obtain 40 extraordinary level growth demon. The higher the level of the demon spirits the higher the chances of failure.

The 20 stones of demon spirits all consists of void/dark attributes. They were also fighter types since I needed something for straight on combat.

I had four chances to refine a god level growth type demon spirit.

I put ten extraordinary level growth type demon spirits into the nightmare pot and began the refining process. Colourful lights flash every time they combined slowly the process went on. The demon spirits were destroyed as they dispersed from the pot. _Bzzz_ my premonition sense alerted me right at the demon stones disappeared.

"1 failed, 3 to go" once again I repeated the process and once again It failed.

I've been trying to make my premonition sense interact with this process. It would allow me to avoid making mistakes.

 _Bzzz_ Once the premonition kicked in I already knew the process had failed.

"2 failed, 2 to go"

Waves after waves of soul spirit fluctuation came from the Nightmare Demon Pot.  
After feeling such majestic soul force, my soul realm began to absorb the soul force coming from the Nightmare Demon Pot. My body felt comfortably warm.  
Ten Extraordinary level demon spirits were constantly merging. Finally, they formed into a whole new demon spirit.

"Dammit, about time!" I said happily. I examined the growth rate of the demon spirit using a soul crystal.

[God level growth rate]

"Yes! Hell yes!" the demon spirit looked like a wolf but with long curving canines. It had a totally dark body but with a silver spike like mane around its neck.

The encyclopedia provided information on the abilities of the the demon beast.

[Void Sabre toothed wolf.

Dark claws.

Domain of void.

Chaos beam blast.

?]

"Well that's new" the encyclopedia displayed information of the demon spirit. I don't know why it didn't display one for the shadow devil. It could be related to my rank.

I had to test out the abilities of the void wolf to understand their limits.

But first the last try.

 _Br_ zz I stopped the process before the demon spirits could merge.

If I continued I would fail so instead of doing that I stored the stones in my storage ring.

Now to integrate with the demon spirit

…

I was back at my secluded spot. And again it was night. I just like the darkness, it's comforting and calm.

Assuming a meditative pose I slowly guided the demon spirit into my soul realm, I began to integrate with it.

It took even lesser time than it did with Ghost. The void wolf was refined with my soul realm influencing it, this caused it to be attracted to my soul realm.

Once again my soul surged as both demon spirits interacted in my soul realm. My soul force was rapidly increasing, it rose to 3000 and then to 3400 before settling down at 3687, I entered the 4-star silver rank level. The edges of my void sphere slowly expanded and the vortex had a slightly faster spin, the primal force filled my being and radiated throughout my body. It strengthened my body. The two demon spirits in my soul realm had a form of connection to each other and then to me.

Merging with the void wolf, I turned towards a mirror I had taken out from my storage ring.

Black fur coated my body, I was taller larger and more muscular than I previously was. Pointed ears stood out from the sides of my head. A silver mane decorated my neck, and a black tail that swayed side to side. "Isn't this a furry fetish?" (heh. Forgive me 4chan).

I tested the first ability, dark claw. Dark energy converged over my hands forming sharp long claws. I playfully swiped when I noticed the energy claw swipes were projected from my claws, slicing through trees in a 5 meter distance. The dark swipes could be used for five times in a row.

I tried the Void domain next it lasted for 10 secs over a radius of 5 meters. The domain was a place where I was strengthened, I speculate that it would severely weaken my enemies.

I couldn't test the chaos beam blast because I'm sure the resulting explosion would alert everyone in the vicinity.

I'm sure these abilities of mine would increase with each rank I gain.

I unmerged with the wolf and looked at it, in all its 6'ft height of majestic glory. It's black fur reflected silver moonlight, it's silver mane announced its regality.

"Void wolf, let's call you Fenrir" I pet it on the head.

It howled out to the moon"Awoooo!" damn howling is fun.

* * *

 _ **Righteous Judas**_ _arc._

The city lord's villa was by far the most developed and beautiful place in all of glory city.

I walked up to the gates and sought entrance. After waiting for a while Ye Ziyun came to take me in.

"Hey Ziyun, is your father around?" I asked.

"Yes, he is" she answered.

"I'd like to meet with him, there's something very important I have to tell him" I said.

"Why? Is everything OK" she asked worriedly.

"it's just important, don't worry." I replied.

"OK, I'll be right back" she left and came back a short while later.

"My father says that you can come into his office"

Walking into the city lord's office I saw the man behind the desk looking over a mountainous pile of papers.

"Shen Yue, pays his respects to the city lord" I cupped my hands and took a bow.

"Yes, Little Yue. Welcome, as you can see I'm quite busy so speak fast" he said without even looking up from his work.

"Sir, my family is working with the dark guild" I said slowly. Even though I wasn't very close to them, it still felt painfully heart wrenching to do this.

The air in the room chilled and the pressure increased as the city lord slowly rose his head from his work pile. His eyes meeting mine.

"Explain"

"Well you see my family….." I began to tell him everything I knew.

…

"I'll take my leave now"

"Little Yue, Why are you helping us" he asked solemnly.

"It's because of my mom. She loves this city, she grew up here and I look at everyone here as family I can't let it be destroyed. I can't let her lose her joy" I couldn't control the tears that pooled in my eyes. And with a nod I left the mansion, swiping my sleeves over my face. This hurt me more than anyone else.

* * *

Time passed, I made my preparations. I kept sending the city lord info on my family's activities by Ziyun becoming our proxy.

I went to the alchemy association today to get some stuff, but I saw the looks the director gave me. Looks filled with disgust an a tinge of pity. Can you believe it? Disgust! Ha! At least it was better than her actions. I guess some people knew what the sacred family has been planning. But after all I've done, this is how I'm treated? I brought it onto myself.

The city lord was preemptively prepared for every action my family and the dark guild had taken and would take against him.

I don't know what's happening to me but the chaos energy is slowly changing and altering my body. My hair is now a dark black in contrast to blue it was at the beginning. My fingernails had also become black, which was due to the sword and its energy affecting my hands the most. I was dressed in sasuke's first shippuden outfit. With an armour beneath the open zipped chest coat. A large rope belt tied around my waist, holding the sash over my black trousers. My dark sword strapped to the side. Black fingerless gauntlets covered my arms.

I walked toward the city walls where the demon beast horde would arrive at.

…

I stood next to the city lord as we watched Nie Li's explosives in effect. I set up my missile array. It was a combination of alchemy and inscriptions.

"What is this?" the city lord asked looking at the giant missile array. The others who also stood next to us turned to face me

"This is the party" I answered blandly. During the time I had spent I managed to finally perfect my self made formula for high yield explosives. My soul force was the key all along.

Nie Li's attack took down a tenth of the million beast hoard.

I positioned the missiles and then sent my soul force into the switch. On this day the people of the divine continent would witness the might of weapons from my home planet, and they will never be the same.

Missiles sped through the air as they went to the very centre of the beast hoard before crashing down into it. For a moment nothing happened I heard snorts and stifled laughter but they were all cut short by the blinding light released from the missiles follows by the sounds of thunder that shook the very earth beneath our feet. The numbers of the beast horde was instantly halved. I threw my dark sword, devoured far into the centre as well, It would absorb all the demon souls.

The wall was quiet as people watched in disbelief, none anticipating the power of the missiles. A severely injured great ape demon beast was able to slam into the walls climbing it, it was quickly ended by the city lord as he obtained the spirit of the beast in the process. When the reality of the situation hit them everyone started celebrating. Nie Li gave me skeptical look. Right, I guess he was supposed to shine here. Like I care about these ungrateful people.

I reloaded the firing mechanisms with more rocket missiles, and fire another missile cluster at the remaining demon beasts. Their numbers were drastically reduced to a mere 3000. I called back devourer, sheathed it and gathered my items back into the storage ring.

"Shen Yue, takes his leave" I said cupping my arms, and then jumping away. I had absorbed as many demon spirits as I could while I was at the wall. My spirit rank was at 3-star gold rank. I would soon breakthrough to the 4-star gold rank.

I already warned him of Ye han's scheme. Lets see how it turns out.

* * *

News spread that the city lord was severely injured, I would soon find out whether they trusted me or not. When I met Ye Ziyun to give her the last piece of information today. Her eyes were alternating between being a warm gaze and a cold one as she looked at me. After telling her what was about to happen, I quickly took my leave. She never told me that the city lord was still OK that it was all a ploy by them to gather everyone. If I had been there I would have most likely not escaped. Haha! I really did mess up in this cold, cold, world. I have been _**naive**_.

…

 _City lords villa_

"Father in law, what do we do about Shen Yue. He could take revenge for what we're about to do. Should we just let him go like this?"

"He has given us valuable information, and he gathered most merits during the beast horde invasion. Why should we harm him? After tonight the whole of glory city will know the true colors of the sacred family"

"His engagement to Ziyun has already been annulled."

…

I had emptied my clans treasury when they went to the city lords villa for the banquet. I knew they wouldn't leave there alive, and this was my right this was my property and I'll be damned if the city lord or anyone else took it from us. I had already moved my mom and the remaining members into a mansion I had bought at the outskirts of the city where no one would trouble or even recognize them. I had bought a large mansion just for them. The place was fortified and being guarded by the finest.

The explosions from the city lords villa was visible through glory city.

…...

The golden hues of the early dawn shined down on the city. I made my way to the city lord's villa to take the bodies of my people. My family.

"I wish to meet the city lord"

"Wait here" he turned around.

" _traitors_ " I heard him mutter before he left. _Hah_! Shen Yue you really messed up. You'd think they'd thank me, after everything I've done for them. Just because members of my family revolted, they termed me a traitor. No the only people I betrayed was my family.

When he came back I didn't let him speak, I punched the teeth out of his mouth as he lay bleeding and unconscious on the ground.

"You think you can ride over me? You think I'm afraid? You don't have the ability to!" all the guards converged on my position. Nie Li and the city lord came over.

I won't take shit from nobody. I'm done with acting civil, I'm done with being patient, I'm done with acting nice.

"If any of you mess with me or mine, I will come after you and I will kill you" for the first time ever I fully released my abyss attributes outside my body.

The temperature dropped as a dark shadow spread out with me at the centre, everyone subconsciously took a step back. Even the never afraid Nie Li had to retreat. This was nothingness, the abyss was non-existence it was the darkness that ruled, it predated creation. How do you think they would feel falling into a pit of disorder, where you can't tell up from down. Where nothing makes sense. Imagine how cold the eternal void would feel. It wasn't meant for beings to exist.

….

I had left the city lords villa with the corpses of my family members. I gave them all a proper burial.

* * *

*whoo! And that ladies and gentlemen is a wrap. I hope you all enjoyed it. Shen Yue feels that even though he did the right thing, he still messed up. They say you don't know what you have until you lose it. That's how he's feeling about his family members right now.

Chapters will be coming in slow for all my stories. I'll be quite busy, so I won't have too much time to spend writing. Hence the long length chapters.

 **Victory!** *


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer:_ all characters and mentioned universes belong to their respective owners and/or creators.  
This is a work of fiction.

' _Italics means he is talking to himself /inner voice'_

"inverted commas" means a normal conversation.

"different languages" means speaking in a foreign language.

[encyclopedic texts]

 _Thoughts of other characters_

* * *

 **Eyes meant for the dark.**

* * *

"Mother, I will be leaving today. I will be back and I'll take you to an even better place" I knelt on a knee as I spoke to her with my head bowed.

"Son, don't worry. Mother understands. You just make sure you come back safe. You're all I have _sob_ left" she ran her hand across my hair and tapped my shoulder. "Go on. You have my blessings"

"Take care mother, I will be back very soon" I rose and made my exit from my mom's room. I couldn't turn back and face her tears, it might break my will to leave. I know, I am filled with guilt at what I did. And every time I see my mom cry, I feel even more guilty. But I will make it up to her and my family.

"Patriarch Yue! Are you leaving" an older child runs towards me. Yes, I was the official patriarch of the family now. After both, my grandfather and father passed I was next in line. And since I also saved them from doom everyone accepted it as so. I not only improved all our cultivation materials but I replaced all our demon spirit stones with extraordinary and god level growth type demon spirits. All of them would grow to become powerful cultivators with all these provided resources.

"Little Yan, you know I can't take you along. I need you to be here and keep the family safe alright. Make sure you watch over mother" He vigorously nods his head and takes a hero pose.

"I'll protect them all!" he says confidently. Yan, I hope you never lose your innocence. I smile and rub his head.

The other members gathered to send me off, our bonds were tighter than they ever were. After giving them words of advice and motivation I left through the gates

I sent a nod to the captain guard who nodded back and made a salute.

* * *

I swiftly waded through the thick forest. This was the infinite forest deep into the St ancestral mountain. I didn't even need a map as my premonition sense led me through the right path. I would've merged with ghost but I chose to ride fenrir instead. Yeah I can interact with it even when not merged, although he won't be able to do combat he can still be used as transport. And in such a forest he was king, his instinctual movements and maneuvers made moving through the forest swift and silent even with his giant form.

The place I was headed to was the first place with human inhabitants, leaving the confines of glory city, it was the Heavenly Fate Plateau.

The Heavenly Fate Plateau was at the summit of a mountain, the entire mountaintop looked as though a portion of it was sliced off, creating a huge plain in its place. A single path leads to the mountaintop. The inhabitants numbered more than a thousand. They were people that gathered together to formed a tribe within the safety of the plateau.  
Due to the Heavenly Fate Plateau being located in a high terrain area, there was only one way up and down. It's a relatively safe place due to the single path that lead to and from the mountain top. Making it difficult for demon beasts to gain access to it.

However, it has a severe issue of food deficiency, so the thousands of people were only barely surviving.

I had many reasons for coming here but the main reason was to find the goddess that would be buried in the black spring located beneath the plateau. Underneath the Heavenly Fate Plateau, is an extremely dangerous region known as the Black Spring.  
No one knows where the Black Spring came from, but they do know that it flows from the St. Ancestral Mountain directly into the bottomless abyss. The demon beasts surrounding the Black Spring are existences above Black Gold rank. Legend has it that in the bottomless abyss, there lives a group of extremely powerful Legend rank demon beasts.  
If it wasn't for the natural obstacles, the Heavenly Fate Plateau wouldn't have been able to survive.

…

The early morning sun shined down on my form as I was walking on the path that led towards the entrance of the heavenly fate plateau. This would've been a peaceful day if it weren't for the people I spotted hiding. I sensed their souls, yeah with the advancement of my rank I began to notice new abilities my cultivation granted me. I could also see the darkness in souls.

These people were clearly trying to ambush me.

"Come out, I know you're there"

After a moment of silence, eight individuals rose from their hiding places. A large sun tanned man who wielded a giant hammer lead the group.

"You have good senses kid, but you're a stranger and this is my territory. So drop all your belongings and leave. Or I, Xiao lang will make you" he said threateningly.

"No, now move." I stated blandly.

I must have sounded amusing because a smile spread across his face as he began laughing, his men joining him as well.

"Brat, don't say I didn't warn you!" he leapt at me with the hammer positioned to drop and squash my head.

 _Clink_ his hammer was cleanly separated in half, my sword positioned at his neck. His eyes wide open. "Boss!" his men shouted. I took devourer away from his neck and sheathed it. I didn't kill him because his soul wasn't as dark as the ones I had seen before.

The Man dropped to his knees, he kept touching and feeling his neck and then he looked at me.

"Why didn't you kill me? I was going to kill you! Why didn't you kill me! Don't look at me with judgment! I did all I had to do to survive! This world is cold and ruthless, it took it all away!"

the Man looked at me with pain filled eyes

"I didn't start out like this. No one does, but people are evil! I have to do this so the others can survive! The children are dying of hunger, we the adults are dying of hunger and even in our shame we still can't provide. The others were so ruthless to us, we had to be ruthless as well to survive. So why didn't you kill me?"

This was just a man who lost faith in humanity, so he tried to give hope to others although his means we're brutal he had to do it to survive. Most people in this world would just go about indiscriminately killing without even giving thought to the situation. Psychopaths.

"Look, I don't care about what you think of humans or whatever, it would just be bothersome. So just let me pass" I moved around him.

I was back on my path to reaching the city. _Sigh._ "Didn't I tell you to let me be." they've been following me for hours now. I turned around "What do you want?" I asked annoyed.

"Lord, you have spared the lives of I and my men. I, Xiao Lang am not a good man but I know one when I see one. I will never be able to repay you, I owe you my life I will use it to serve you." He knelt on the ground and declared.

Nope the fuck not "Bulshit! Is your life that cheap? where is it written that I'm a good person? Why am I even asking you that. Look you owe me nothing OK, I don't need a servant either so shoo just go away." crazy people, you think this is a Japanese manga.

"I am the third strongest man in all of heavenly plateau city. I also know the place like the back of my hand, let me be your guide!" ….that actually would be useful for what I wanted to do.

"So you know where your Chief resides?" I asked

"Yes I als-" his sentence was cut short by my interruption.

"OK, you're hired." You're going to be working very hard soon.

…..

People parted to sides of the street, the once bustling market was almost now silent. They avoided Xiao Lang and his group of men, he had a notorious reputation in these parts of the city. Merchants would bow and send a greeting towards us, he would send a nod back in reply.

The stench of rotten waste wafted throughout the market, rotten meat, dried woods and dead roots were a luxury that the wealthiest of them could barely afford.

They wore deteriorating tatters called clothes that had more stitches than actual fabric. Beggars and malnourished children knelt beside stalls. Prostitutes and small-time thugs stood silently in corners, theirs eyes shifting around, gazing from one spot on my body to another, observing my every action.

Whispers began to spread in correlation with their gazes.

Not only was I a stranger, I must have looked like a king to them.

The dilapidated huts came into view, surrounded by a short mud wall.

this was the cleanest place in all of the city. It was where the chief and other leaders resided.

"Chief Xiao Wu! I Xiao Lang has arrived" Standing at my side Xiao Lang shouted out. He's one of the strongest men in this city, even the city lord doesn't openly oppose him, so I guess they were on equal standing.

"Who dares!" A person parted through the gathered crowds. The person was a bald young man, his torso was bare revealing his firm muscles. His face and body were also filled with sinister scars.

"Impudent! Xiao Kuang, are you questioning our boss?!" A skinny man who looked like your generic side character challenged the approaching bald man.

Anger was written on Xiao Kuang's face but at the sight of Xiao Ling, he cupped his arms Shit! What have I gotten myself into, it's boss Xiao Lang he thought to himself as he took a step back.

He just had a 3-Star bronze rank strength, going against Xiao Lang was suicidal. ' _Coward'_ he was strong to the weak and weak to the strong.

I remember him being the second son of the chief.

An elderly but muscular man walked out of one of the huts. He had long dirty brown hair on his head and an almost grey combed moustache hanging at the sides of his mouth.

"Ah~ Xiao Lang, You came to visit this old man. I see you brought a visitor with you as well" He said smiling.

"Chief of the heavenly plateau city, I am Shen Yue. And I have come from very far." I responded.

"Young Master Shen Yue, I Xiao Wu welcomes you to our humble Heavenly plateau city. Please come this way and accept our accommodations" He said with a gesture towards a large centre Hut.

"I appreciate your hospitality, Elder Wu" he raised an eyebrow at my respectful tone, his smile became even wider.

I followed him inside a large Hut where all the other leaders were gathered at. They sat round on a wide straw mat with a short faded table at the centre.

After greetings and small talk I went to the reason for my trip.

I stood up, looking down at them I began to slowly speak.

"Your city is dying. Your people are dying. None of you are able to do anything about it so you watch in helplessness, You watch as poverty and suffering takes them away in wretchedness. Filth covers every inch of your lives, bright days are non-existent in your existence. All for what? Because you lack the materials because you lack the tools, because you lack the leadership, because you lack the power. Well today it ends."

Moving to the centre of the mat I took out a single piece of wheat bread, and I could feel them ready to kill for it. Their eyes were totally fixated on it. Then I crushed it into dust. "No!" "Why?!" They raised their voices in anger. I gazed at them.

"I Shen Yue, has the power to change your lives and the lives of your family. I have the power to raise you from your destitute and damnation"

I released my cultivation rank, power radiated throughout the Hut, their faces paled in surprise and astonishment at the level of my rank. I was at 1-Star black gold rank. I was the strongest person any of them had ever met in all their lives spent living here. The strongest amongst them was just a measly 5-Star gold rank.

This would never work in a democratic society. But here, in this world where might makes right, dictatorship, feudalism and imperialism reigns supreme. In a normal world the majority would conquer the minority almost every time. One Vs many almost always results in the many becoming victorious, it was a World where strength is second to actually political power, where no matter how strong you were you couldn't go against an army sent by a politician but here, strength is the first. Strength that allows you to stand against legions of armies, here, strength speaks.

"Submit to me and I will save you" ' _of course it's for my own gains why else would I want to save anyone'_.

They changed their posture into that of prostration and bowed before me.

"We submit to benefactor, Lord Shen Yue!" They said with such strength and vigor. It went way easier than I expected it to.

I later learnt that they had a prophecy that the saviour would come from afar and deliver them from their suffering and I was that person. ' _Bulshit'_ these people just looked for someone to dump all their problems onto, if I had known earlier I would've saved my damn speech and just go straight for the kill.

...

 _Three months later._

A sea of people were gathered before the villa. I walked on the red carpet to reach the highest point of the pedestal and With smiles on their faces they loudly chanted.

"WE WELCOME LORD YUE!" The golden rays of the sun bore witness to this day, the clear skies smiled in accordance to the voices of the people, the shouts of children and the music of the birds. This was my official inauguration into the position of city lord. Yes, not Chief but city lord.

You'd be surprised at what a group of pseudo super humans could achieve when motivated.

The changes the city went through was staggering and unimaginable.

High Majestic buildings stood in place of what were once dilapidated huts and stalls.

The people where garbed in bright Luxurious attires and fabrics. Cemented pavements and roads decorated the now clean streets as horse drawn carriages stood parked on the side. Beautiful flowers grew on the high massive walls which formed a protective boundary around the city.

These people worshiped me, statues of my image were erected in the city centre and the various garden parks.

To them I was nothing short of a God sent saviour, not only did I bring them food but I also brought them a better life.

Where did I get all the resources? You do remember that I spent a lot of time to prepare right. You also remember that I was FUCKING rich! With all the profits from the pills and the gold from the expedition and my family vault I was one of, if not the wealthiest man in all of the ancestral mountain region.

The chemical fertilisers I built using my library not only made the land fertile but enhanced the growth rate of plants (too bad I didn't have a beanstalk). I filled storage rings with colossal amounts of seeds, foodstuffs, tools, building materials, fabrics, demon spirits and so much more. I made cultivation methods to suit fighters and ones to suit those who wanted to be demon spiritualists. I effectively built this city from the ground up to actually resemble its title "The heavenly city"

Of course there were the greedy ones, the ones averse to change, the unredeemable criminals and the ones too corrupted for my liking so I culled them. I didn't have to dirty my hands with that. Xiao Lang who was now my right hand man and also the leader of the newly established police/military force purged them put from the very roots, not a single one of their bloodlines were spared. In one night, enough blood was spilled to dye the streets red. To the masses it was an operation by the government to end rebels and revolters who wanted to cause disorder. This caused the public opinion to be totally with us, condoning our actions and giving us full support.

And now my rule was unshakable. Ruthless? Compared to the psychos here I was a saint plus you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.

But the big question is why did I do all this? I wasn't going to leave my family to suffer from the results of my actions in glory city. They would have a comfortable life here, living like royalty. Or maybe it was just a way for me to clear my conscience.

I stood on the high pedestal as golden sun rays formed a brilliance to radiate from my majestic attire. I turned my gaze to my sides and saw my family and my men standing with their chest raised high. My mom had tears pooling in her eyes, her beautiful smile shone brighter than the sun to me. She's the real reason I did all this, I love this woman she has gone through a lot and I won't let her suffer again.

Turning back to the jubilating masses I Raised my right hand, the soldiers slammed the butts of their spears down on the floor, causing a soft rumble to radiate through the atmosphere as the masses became silent.

"None of this would've been possible without you. Each and everyone of you put your sweat, blood and tears to make this day a reality. Take pride in your achievements"

"We Submit To Lord Yue! He is our Sun! HE IS OUR RULER!" They said in booming unison, the multiple gazes of reverence showed their unfaltering loyalty.

And on cue the magnificent fireworks decorated the skies. As thunderous applause and shouts of joy accompanied the rain of flowers on my departure into the villa.

...

"huf~f" I softly exhaled and inhaled.

A cloud of purple smoke entered my skin with each inhalation the energy heading into my soul sphere, increasing my soul force. I was already at the 2-Star black gold rank and with this inhalation I broke through into the 3-Star Black gold rank. The energy caused my abyss sphere to slightly expand as it sucked in all the purple smoke. The process was painful since the purple smoke would continually temper the body, building and rebuilding the muscles and organs. There would be slight booming sounds like a hammer striking against steel. And with each strike the body becomes stronger and strength increases in toe with soul force.

Why is my cultivation level so high in such short amount of time? There were many reasons, I mean consider the fact that my soul talent is actually extremely high and then there's the abstruse gem stone that raises cultivation speed by three times. But that's all second to the amount of time I spend training, tempering my body through hellish pain, meditating and practicing my martial arts, incorporating my danger sense into vast aspects of my life and that involves a lot of harm and danger. Days spent in absolute solitude trying to understand my abilities and ways to improve, time spent trying to find the secrets of my sword.

I wasn't playing around, I've been putting myself through circumstances that would seem to lead to nothing more than suicide. Why? Because I will not fall behind, I will rise to greater heights and take my fate into my own hands.

Back to the rock.

The smoke was from the purple rock that Nie Li would eventually come over here for. He would be in for a shock because all the purple rocks and their mining sites were under the struck watch of the military. It's use were widely spread and circulated. The rocks were able to increase the cultivation and you couldn't buy them for less than a hundred thousand coins so it was mostly used as rewards for outstanding individuals and their acts, raising their value to be rated higher than gold. The only way to use them was to buy an inscription slate. What? I wasn't just going to pass info on the secret process that turns it into smoke out. No the inscription slate handled all of that and any form of tampering with the slate would result in its deterioration. That was just one of many security measures.

Rising from my meditative pose I stretched out my arms and legs receiving a satisfying crack. Now was the time to get to my real objective.

* * *

I was deep in the dark forest, the light only made the surroundings look gloomier, the dark poison fog floated everywhere. The dried skeletons of beasts and humans littered the forest floor but none of it impeded my advancement. My immaterial figure speed through the forest without making a single leaf rustle, I was integrated with ghost and was in an intangible state. After the forest came the poisonous mud marsh, it would trap people like quicksand and eat away at their skin like a corrosive acid.

Moving past the mud marsh came the black spring just below a very steep cliff. A trail of black spring water flowing down, formed a waterfall. On the bottom of the cliff was a bulged up platform. It seemed to have been man-made. In the bottomless pond that looked like an endless abyss came the faint roars of mighty beasts that hummed through the earth.

I would have like to explore it but even my strengthened body would disintegrate under the corrosive effects of the black spring.

I slowly floated down the cliff face on to the raised platform. Ancient inscription patterns were draw all over the platform. The inscriptions were absolutely complex…for any other person that might be the case but for me it wasn't. These patterns were very similar to the ones I got back at my expedition to Holy orchid city. I wouldn't even need more than two minutes to disable the patterns thanks to my vast knowledge stored in the library and my actual experience and intellect.

While working on the patterns I thought back to the time Nie Li abandoned these similar inscription patterns and alchemic formulas when he chanced upon them during the expedition, he only sought the shadow devil and temporal demon book page, ignoring such treasure because he felt that he knew it all. What an idiot, that old man in a young guy's body really just made it through by his plot armour and foreknowledge. Knowledge is never ending, the moment you think you're perfect is the moment it all ends for you. You have to constantly improve yourself imperfection in itself is a type of perfection.

Done - _Rumble_ \- the rock face began to slowly tremble, sending slight tremors through the cliff.

The walls parted apart as an opening was formed. The opening led to a serene and deep cave. The cave was damp, droplets of water would fall to the ground, converge together and formed a sparkling stream of clear water. The soothing crisp sounds of the stream reverberated through the pathway.

' _Time to meet a god'_ I called back ghost into my soul realm as my body became tangible again. I was wearing my trademark attire which was the sasuke shippuden outfit. I easily made my way through the hall. I made sure not to trigger any defensive measure since my danger sense warned me of any offensive inscription patterns and traps. Of course I recorded each pattern it might prove to be useful in the future.

...

Dazzling lights were being emitted from a brilliant array of shining purple crystals that resembled the light of stars in the night sky. The lights gave the cave a sort of ethereal peaceful atmosphere.

In the center of this cave was an enchanting dark pond, although spring water constantly flowed into the pond there were absolutely no ripples on its surface. The pond was surrounded by an extreme defensive barrier pattern, that would take up immense time and energy just to lay the first part down.

I turned my gaze elsewhere and that there was a large rock on the edge of the black pond. Walking towards the rock I noticed the dried skeleton remnants and their rusted items. A weak energy that seemed to be a level higher than soul force was radiated from their skeletons, showing that these were once heavenly peak experts who had ultimately perished in this cave.

I took my time to examine each piece of armour and the inscriptions on them. The inscriptions were absolutely amazing, they were woven in such a way that would leave one in wonder. From my meta-knowledge I knew that these dried bones were from many millennia ago. And although some patterns were obsolete most of them were very innovative. After storing some of the armours I took all the storage rings on their bodies which amounted to Six in total. The storage capacity was equal to the ones I found during my expedition to Holy orchid city, but the items they held made them valuable. Of course the demon stones and elixirs had been rendered useless but I could look at the components of the elixirs to maybe try and reverse engineer them.

Going through the last of the rings I got the wind spirit armour that looked just like a transparent thin film of fabric.

I equipped the armour and watched as it thinned it self down to fit my form, it was surprisingly soft too and utterly transparent, if I wasn't wearing it I wouldn't have even noticed it.

With such a size and properties it's amazing how it can absorb 90% of attack damage made by even legend rank experts. It's defensive capability was astounding. It didn't seem to be from the inscriptions on the armour but rather the armour's material.

When I was done with my activities I moved back to the pond and observed the barrier. The inhabitant should be alerted by now, she had been observing my actions for a while now and I could feel the energy slowly surfacing.

The calm surface water of the black pond was disturbed by a full head of hair and them by the emergence of a humanoid figure. The outline of woman's figure became visible. A black muslin stuck close to her form, the side of the dress had slits which displayed the sides of her smooth alluring legs. Her breasts stood proudly pushing against the dress leaving little to imagination. She had a fiery aura that radiated from her body, her eyes held a deep gaze as she looked deep into mine. She had a pure but sultry charm about her. Yes she was beautiful alright. Would I smash? 110% yes I would. If that thought didn't cross my mind that I wouldn't deserve to be called a man.

But am I crazy over her? Nope. I just admire her beauty and her body but that's just it. I'm not lusting over her or anything like that.

As she moved her gaze the atmosphere above the Black Spring instantly changed, turning into an endless sea of stars.  
Her gaze deep and moving, emitting a kind of faint light as though she could see through everything. She was radiating energy that was above soul force and this time I clearly felt it. This was Heavenly fate level.

Turning her gaze back to me

"I have waited for several tens of millennia. I never thought that there would finally be people arriving here. Young man, what's your name?" her voice was faint but clear.

"Hi pretty miss, I'm Shen Yue" I said with a calm smile. " What's yours?"

"I am Yu Yan, the fire spiritual god" she said lightly.

Even though I knew who she was I had to act like I didn't.

"Miss, I don't understand what you mean by that" I sent her a questioning gaze.

She had a gentle smile on her face and said, "Indeed, our time has long passed. We're the Spiritual Gods of this world, in control of all kinds of Laws in the heavens and on earth. I am in control of fire, it's just that my physical body has been dissipated. My Divine Spark has been destroyed, becoming extremely small clusters of dust that scattered to every corner of the world. However, we, Spiritual Gods, are indestructible. After a few tens of thousands of years, my Divine Spark will gradually re-gather and combine to reform my physical body."

"But who are the spiritual gods?" I asked.

"Spiritual Gods are the gods of this world. Every main world can only have thirty-six Spiritual Gods. One subsidiary realm can only have one Spiritual God. They wield one law from the heavens and earth. All Spiritual Gods represent the world's laws."

she spread fire from her hands. And continued.

"Since ancient times, among the thirty-six Spiritual Gods in our main world and all the affiliated seventy-two Spiritual Gods from the subsidiary worlds, one-fourth are represented by humanity, two-fourths are by demon beasts and one-fourth is by other living creatures. They are the powerful rulers of this world." Yu Yan slowly said, "In order to contest over the laws, the tribes that we have control of unfolded an endless amount of killing. In the end, many Spiritual Gods were extinguished. Some were like me, and had their Divine Sparks destroyed and physical bodies cease to exist."

So they could still die. I thought they would be truly immortal but they weren't.

"We wield the laws of the heavens and earth. Such as myself, I control the Law of Fire. Only when I'm truly dead and have lost the control over the Law of Fire, the next one can take over the Law of Fire and become the new Fire Spiritual God." said Yu Yan.

I nodded at her explanation.

"So where are the other gods? What happened to them? "

"Tens of thousands of years ago, the demon beast clan tried to kill all the Spiritual Gods of our human clan to gain control of our laws, which is why they launched the battle against the human clan. Although we combined our strength and utterly defeated the demon beast clan, we suffered casualties and were nearly exhausted. My dispersed Divine Sparks can sense that a Spiritual God has been born in the demon beast clan and is trying to destroy the heritance of my human clan. Pity that my Divine Spark has only been gathered to a third of the original. If more Spiritual Gods have been born in the demon beast clan and are in control of all the laws, then the human clans will be exterminated."  
"My Divine Sparks can only be in the Black Spring as it slowly waits for the rest of my Divine Sparks to gather. Once I leave, the group of pinnacle level Legend rank demon beasts guarding the Black Spring will do all they can to stop me and destroy my physical body." she sighed in melancholy.

This was the reason why the humans of this world were driven to such dire straits. Since most of all the experts at the heavenly fate realm fell during the war. The cultivation techniques were eventually lost as well, hence the reason behind the lack of heavenly fate realm experts in the divine continent. ' _Well if they had Australians I'm pretty sure the demon clan would be extinct' heh_ (What does that even mean?) (*Yeah that joke sucks Shen Yue*)

Well it's not like I cared that much about them, I wanted to raise my own strength and this was the best path for it. All I had to do was take the opportunity now.

Her gaze shifted into the distance as she sighed, "While waiting for my Divine Sparks to gather, the heritance of the human clan will probably be destroyed! Humanity would go extinct!"

She's a really good actress isn't she? You think I'm stupid to believe in the goodness of her heart or her generosity. She is just looking for someone who is able to succeed the process because if you don't you will die. How do you think those men became corpses? Not everyone can survive what she's about to propose and she knows it, but acts like its a privilege that only the luckiest will be able to get. I don't blame her, that's just the way the world is.

And so I played along.

"The human clan will never be wiped out. We will triumph over all obstacles. Please goddess tell me if there's a way for me to help" I said heatedly.

She looked at me with a smile that seemed pure but I thought otherwise

"I want to pass on the power of laws to you. As to how much you can comprehend and level you reach, that much will have to depend on you!" she said with an almost crazy tone.  
Calming her mood, she slowly said, "Among the twenty-seven Spiritual Gods in our human clan, there are six that have thoroughly fallen. The remaining have their Divine Sparks scattered, some with unknown status. If you are able to comprehend the laws of the six experts, they'll naturally be the most suitable and easiest."

"Then I'd like to choose from the strongest laws"

That cause her to raise an eyebrow. Her gaze deepened.

"Are you sure? The stronger the law is,the harder it is to cultivate. Everyone can only cultivate one law, don't bite off more that you can chew. Choose what's most suitable for you"

"I still stand by my decision" I affirmed.

She looked at me a bit helplessly You're just a child, you will just have to experience it yourself to know how hard it is to cultivate

"OK then, among the six dead Spiritual Gods, the strongest are Light, Darkness and Primal Chaos, these three laws. Among them, I have personally witnessed the fall of the Primal Chaos Spiritual God. However, the Primal Chaos Spiritual God is the strangest existence, who knows if he had any contingencies. The remaining three are the elemental laws, Earth, Lightning and Gold law."  
"The most important in comprehending the laws is to sense them. I will teach you the method to sense them." Yu Yan said "However, sensing the laws is extremely difficult. You might need to seclude yourself here for twenty years before you can sense a trace of a law."

I sent her a doubting gaze.

She smiled "20 years is already a very short period of time. In my time we had to spend much more and that was when the power of laws were abundant, not now that the power of laws are so meagre"

Once again I affirmed my decision and she could only sigh at it before ultimately accepting it.

...

"What do I do first" I asked as I stood before the black pond.

"The first step is to strengthen your physical body. This Black Spring contains portions of the power from my Divine Spark. I will open the barrier, so you can enter and soak yourself in it, which will reform and refine your physical body. If you sense the power of law when your physical body isn't strong enough, the power would destroy you." she answered.

"So a stronger vessel for a stronger power" I simplified.

"In essence, yes. But remember The power within the Black Spring is too strong. After you soak in it for a minute, you'll probably feel as though your skin is burning. When you really can't endure it, get out of the spring immediately"

"No problem"

And as I prepared to jump into the pond.

"Take your clothes off" a calm voice said at my side.

I turned to look her in the eye. And answered "OK" what? Should I have acted flustered and flushed? Yeah, right, not gonna happen. After taking off every article of clothing off of me. My bare body was displayed in all its glory. I won't lie, I really love my body, my muscles are so defined I look like a slimmer Goku.

A voice interrupted me from myself praise.

"What's this mysterious pattern on your back" I almost jolted when I felt her warm fingers slide on the inscription tattoo I had.

I walked toward the edge of the pond away from her arms reach. "That's the cross I bear" The tattoo was an intricate piece of a combination of inscriptions that formed a large cross on my back. I had to spend close to a year just to finish it and I don't know everything it does but it has astounding effects on my cultivation and soul realm. It grows along with my level, and it's one of the reasons for my explosive growth since it passively absorbs energy from the environment and feeds it to the void sphere. Where did I find it? I dreamt about it, yep I really dreamt about it and used all resources I had to make it a reality. I had a feeling that it was something very important.

With a deep breath I dove into the pond.

...

It felt like I was submerged in a viscous fluid that stimulated my nerves to a 110% all so I could feel even more pain. But that was secondary to the satisfaction of absorbing the pure energy that was similar but different from soul force. My abyss vortex greedily sucked in the energy it flowed through every cell in my body, my muscles, organs, tissues and cells were being augmented and enhanced. The best word I could find that fit the process was refinement. I was being rebuilt by the energy and an equal level of pain assaulted me.

As time passed I entered a meditative state busily absorbing the energy, the abyss sphere of my soul was never ending as it kept sucking it in.

Yu Yan looked at the extraordinary boy that drew all her attention. She wondered if this was the level humans had reached during her absence but she came to the conclusion that that would be impossible. He was extraordinary, Since he came into the cave she has been trying to read his mind or the thoughts of his heart but she couldn't find a thing. It was like looking into an empty, endless abyss. Perhaps he might be the key to all of this.

She saw him continuously break through his cultivation rank at an unimaginable pace. She tried calling out to him but he was in a trance as he went deeper into the pond absorbing the intense pure laws energy that filled the pond.

...

The energy deeper in the pond was way more potent and richer than that at the top. It was like the energy was trying to stuff me full till I exploded but that wasn't possible, the abyss sphere endlessly absorbed the energy and refined my body. All of this was to break the barrier that was blocking me from reaching the legend rank. The energy continually slammed against the walls trying to tear it apart but the sphere absorbed it all and when it got to a certain level I felt it.

 _Boom_ the sphere expanded and so did a cocoon of pure darkness that warped around me, I felt like I was in the center of the sphere that kept greedily sucking up the energy and fed it to my soul and body.

...

The cocoon was absorbed back into my being and I felt different, I was changed, I was reborn. My body looked and felt smoother but with so much more strength than I had ever felt in all my life. I was filled with power. The demon spirits in my soul realm had very noticeable changes done to them as well.

The weirdest thing was my vision, everything was clearer and I could see these lines, spots, waves, clouds and so much more. I was seeing the energy flow all around me and all around the atmosphere and then these other things I didn't know about. I could see it all, it wasn't all in colours of visible light but on a whole different spectrum. I didn't know what to make of it I had to slowly adapt to it.

But all of that would have to wait since I found myself next to the real body of the fire goddess Yu Yan, her body was in a red orb laying in a fetal position. Due to this new vision I could see the divinity and how the energy flowed to form it. I could see how it interacted with the energy to form her body.

I saw the power of law and how it actually interacted with the heavens and the earth to form these so called laws.

Touching it I was able to absorb a bit of the law to gain understandings and a form of enlightenment. The power of law alone couldn't take you to a higher level above the heavenly fate realm, you needed to combine it with cultivation energy to supplement it and form a beneficial relationship.

I slowly began replacing the soul force with the power of law setting up my foundation for when I would begin cultivating the higher form of heavenly energy.

….

After spending a month in the pond I thoroughly replaced my soul force with this heavenly power of laws, the energy that was a level above it.

I slowly rose to the surface of the pond exiting it. Yu Yan stood a while away with a pondering look on her face. When she turned her gaze to me, I noticed the slight blush ' _Why's she blushing?'._ I was now adapted to my new vision I don't actually know how I looked right now but I felt taller and more powerful, so my body frame might have developed even more.

"I never thought you would breakthrough to such a level, even your physique has been strengthened to the legend rank. Let's make use of the moment, maybe you'll be able to sense the laws themselves" she said.

"Alright then. How do I sense it" concerning the nature of laws themselves I knew little about them. But I could see the energy flow and going from my meta-knowledge I should be able to get it.

"I could sense slight chaos attributes of your soul when you broke through into the legend rank. To be honest I don't know much about primal chaos since it was so mysterious. So instead let's try the law of darkness and hopefully you'll be able to reach chaos from there. But I have to inform you, it's absolutely rare for someone to cultivate two laws, it all depends on your luck." she gestured for me to sit on the rock.

"With my guidance it should come easier for you. Empty your mind and calm yourself. Now imagine that you're in a bright warm place, feel the creeping cold that comes from the shadow of your being…" she patiently lectured.

I imagined the encroaching darkness, the silent cold depths where everything ends and begins. I don't know when but my vision turned absolutely black. I was in the vast darkness but it felt comforting to me. I was lost but I wasn't. I felt the path that would lead me to the void. The darkness is part of the void, the void is empty and cold. It is nothingness, primal chaos is the origin of all things. There were no rules here I was sinking into the abyss, living beings aren't meant to be here, I was falling into the deep fear but I wasn't afraid. I belonged here this was my soul, this is my realm. I was thoroughly submerged into the comforting nothingness, time had no meaning here, nothing mattered here. I understood the essence.

Ye Yun watched in astonishment as the boy comprehended the laws in a way she had never imagined possible. She watched as a cocoon of darkness swallowed him. It was like the laws of primal chaos found their ruler, and darkness found its king. A sensation she had never felt in all these millennia returned to her, fear. Fear of the unknown but also the strange charm it had. She was slowly feeling attracted to it, like a moth drawn to the flame she wanted to understand and that scared her. Those who fall into the abyss never make it out.

….

I awoke, from the peace of the void I was brought back into this world. See what I did was to actually connect to the real laws, not the inscription patterns that made up the fake laws governing this world, no I connected to the real law. The Real essence of the law was in me. I am part of the true darkness and void of the eververse and the void of the eververse is part of me. I need to achieve a higher level of cultivation to understand why the abyss is part of me. Why am I like this? I had to know. I would also be able to access more of the void with a higher realm of cultivation.

I turned my gaze to the goddess and she was almost lost in it.

"Close your eyes and withdraw your aura immediately!" she shouted out to me.

Upon closing my eyes and reining in my aura, I received info from the encyclopedia.

[ **True** **Eyes**.

-See ? truth ?

-Disorder ?

-?

-? ]

When I saw it I understood. These eyes are meant to see the real picture. I was surprised but calm at the same time. I knew how to use it but I didn't know why I knew such.

Once again I opened my eyes.

She took a deep breath feeling relieved.

"I don't know what that was but it was like I was looking into the abyss, I was almost lost in it. I have never seen anything like it in all my existence. You must be careful in controlling your aura, you might unintentionally cause a lot of harm."

"Are you really human?" she asked with a very serious tone.

"Of course I am." I answered back immediately.

I felt that something was different. I took out a mirror from my storage ring and observed myself. I lost the strength in my arms as the mirror slid from it and broke into countless pieces of glass.

"Sh!t" Was The only fitting word I could find.

...

My eyes. Dammit, my eyes changed and so did my body. My eyes changed, the once dark iris was now a bright pure golden and my previously white scerela were now fully black. It gave off a kind of dark dangerous charm and there was absolutely no way to change it back (it's not like I wanted to give back the abilities it came with). It did allow me to see the weakest points of things, the flow of energy and things invisible to the naked eye. Since I haven't fully rested it out yet, I'm not a 100% on all its abilities, even when ignoring the ones I can't access yet.

I was reformed in the womb of darkness instead of a highly muscular look I previously had my body was as slim as a supermodel's. A f*$ ¥€&! Flower boy look! What happened to all my macho manly muscles dammit!? I still had them but It's like all my muscles were very condensed and compacted to a very slim profile form. And then I was remoulded with a maxed out charm stat, my flowing hair can tell you all about it. I looked like a beautifully handsome man. Yeah, angelic with a slender figure. Now imagine it with my eyes and then you can understand how f*cked I am. This is just an outward appearance, and appearances can be fooling. I was still powerful, way more than I previously was but dammit I was going for the batman bulky bulging muscle look. Now I'm an angel chunni looking bastard.

I don't know what else happened in that womb of darkness, all impurities in my body were expelled and as a by-product my skin was as smooth as a baby's but and and an ethereal dark glow on it. My body had an air of unnatural attraction about it, a mysterious alluring aura. It's painful to even talk about it because it would seem like I enjoy this. I don't.

But my cultivation method seemed to not be wholly based on demon spirit integration but also the advancement of the body. It was like those of the immortals in other worlds that would temper their bodies to ridiculous degrees. If that's the case then this evolved form must be the most efficient.

I won't lie, my hair was amazingly soft, (consider a bald look, it might grant you some machoness) hell no! If this is how I am now, then so be it. I'll accept myself because if I don't then who will? I'm not ashamed of who I am or how I look. Because I'm a badass and there are no two ways about it.

"goddess Yu Yan, are you ok?" I asked the goddess who was almost drooling staring at me.

"O-of course." she stuttered and turned her gaze elsewhere with a slight blush on her cheeks.

...

"And that's it" I said putting the finishing touches to the inscription patterns.

"Amazing! I can already feel speeding up. I can't imagine that such a miracle would ever be possible. It should have taken another millennium but now I'll most likely regain my almost peak condition in a year" She was elated...very elated.

I immensely improved on the inscription patterns that helped her reconstruct her body and gather her Devine sparks. She should be able to return to her peak state in less than two years, but we all know she won't be spending that long here when the mc comes around.

"That's the decoy, if you ever decide to leave here the demon spirits would never even notice it" I pointed to the a large ball of flames that hovered over complex patterns.

"Shen Yue if you ever need help, this big sister always has your back" she proudly pounded her chest, making her melons jinggle.

' _No one has my back but me. I'll never be that naive again'_

I simply smiled at her words. "Alright big sister, I'll be taking my leave. You focus on gathering your divine sparks and your cultivation. If you decide to leave make sure to visit the heavenly plateau city"

"Come, let big sister hug you. Mm~m" She held me before I could resist (I won't)

I do realise that she's pushing her boobs in my face, her fragrance was amazing. Ahh the boob hold, what a wonderful sensation. Too bad I have to leave.

I ran my hand down her waist and tapped her ass with a loud pat! My goodness what a damn great feel. I'd be insane if I didn't take this once in a lifetime opportunity to grope a goddess. This trip really was worth it! What? Don't judge me, I'm just a young guy I have feelings too. I'm not some 'holier than thou' mc

"Ah! Shen Yue, you're too naughty" she laughed pulling my cheeks. "Come visit big sister once in a while alright"

I nodded "Alright, Big sister I'll be taking my leave now" walking back to the cave entrance I merged with ghost and went invisible.

With her gaze on the disappearing figure of Shen Yue, Yu Yan thought to her What an interesting young man, such an enchanting aura. I wonder when he'll come visit. Ah~ Yu Yan what the hell are you thinking, I better get back to cultivating

* * *

I see it now. All this time I was blind to it but now I can clearly see. The will of the heavens are being turned against me. I knew I wasn't supposed to live this long, Shen Yue was supposed to be a stepping stone for Nie Li and then he would die in an unmarked grave. But that wasn't the case this time, my very existence was drawing the anger of the heavens. I was a threat to its precious pawn, I was making my own path when I should've just accepted my fate and it couldn't accept that, I had to either follow it's will or be wiped out. It wasn't like this before but the moment I broke through the legend rank Was The moment it began taking me seriously.

It was retracting all the heavenly energies around my being, it was trying to limit me from absorbing energy for cultivation.

But that's where this higher power or law or whatever the fuck it was, was mistaken.

If it was the me from before I broke through the legend rank then that would've been a severe issue since I would've still depended on the heavenly energy to cultivate, but the me of now doesn't necessarily need the heavenly energy, I had the void. I understand now that my very existence was against the heavens. The abyss wasn't heavenly, it was against it, and these eyes of mine made me see it clearly. The void devours all, and that includes the heavens. The void energy was everywhere, it was dark matter to matter. And the heavens were afraid of that void, the abyss, the primordial chaos, origin of all things and end of all things.

Raising my head up I looked at the high atmosphere "You can't stop me! You will try and you will continually fail. I was against you from the day of my birth, so please accept my words. FUCK YOU! And pawn!" I declared raising both middle fingers at the sky.

It may be stronger than me now, but I will reign supreme in the end. Arrogant? If I didn't have the will and ambition would I deserve to be strong. You need the right mindset to be able to persevere, know that nothing will be able to block you from reaching your goals, nothing but you.

Consequences? I will accept the results of all my actions.

 **Rumble** the clouds shook as red lightning flashed in the darkening sky. The atmosphere turned gloomy and the speeding winds caused the trees to wail. The ground shook and trembled at the might of heaven.

 _ **BRRZZZZ!**_ My danger sense warned louder than it ever had since the day I was born.

An almighty pressure pushed down on my body and spirit. It was like a giant palm was squeezing against an ant, I was in unimaginable pain, I could barely even move. The very ground I was on was sinking in due to the pressure. If I lost here I would die, my soul would be destroyed and dispersed. I released my dark aura, it spread around me to form a protective field of darkness, alleviating the immense pressure from above, my abyss vortex greedily ate at the pressure, further strengthening me. Using that opportunity, I took out an ancient looking inscription scroll and slammed it onto the ground, a transparent dome shield, similar to the one back at the cave was quickly formed over me. Over 80% of the pressure was immediately cut off. The shield wouldn't last long as made evident by the increasing waves on its surface. The pressure receded as the clouds cleared away. This was the heavens' message, telling me that I couldn't even go against an inch of its power. It was telling me to give up.

Even though blood fell at the sides of my lips, and my ears, even through the pain of injured organs I still had a truly mad smirk on my face. I will defeat it and when I do my victory would be made all the more sweeter. I will go against the very heavens, and I shall bring it below my feet. I chugged pills and assumed a meditative pose. And I was surprised, my cultivation actually increased and I was now at peak stage 1-star legend rank solidifying my cultivation. My abyss sphere seemed to have slightly expanded as well.

Heh! This is so much fun.

* * *

I walked through the hallways reaching my mom's room.

"Welcome Lord" The maids greeted. To which I smiled, causing them to blush. It's been sometime since my trip to the cave, when I first came back my new look did cause quite the stir. Heh, I still remember the incident of that night. I just held a maid who was about to fall over from staring at me and she refused to stand, it was strange until I felt her continually shudder in my hold. Yeah, she climaxed, just from skin contact. It's great right? Wrong, do you know how hard it is to talk to someone who just gets lost looking at you, and touching them would lead to something else. They would mess up half of my orders because they weren't paying attention to my words. _Sigh_ Being so handsome should be a crime, you jealous? Haha, eat your heart out sasuke Uchiha.

Entering her chamber, I saw my mom peacefully seated with a book in her hand. Looking closely I saw that it was a book on skincare herbs.

"Mother, I really don't understand why you keep reading these books. You already look beautiful" I complimented her.

"Shen Yue, you've really grown. You're now using sweet words on your mother? Come let me Pinch your cheeks." setting her book down, she reached out her arms to my face.

"Mom, No. I'm not a child anymore. Geez woman." I rejected her.

Her expression turned sad, she put down her hands holding them together as tears began to pool in her eyes. She's guilt tripping me isn't she?

"OK, OK, I'm sorry, Mother, here I am." I'm too weak when it comes to her.

"Uwahh! Mother, you're killing me!" she pulled at my cheeks with a vengeance.

She giggled softly and rubbed my cheeks. "Child, don't grow up too fast, mother is still here for you." she took a comb out of her dresser and smoothed out my hair "My Shen Yue is so handsome, don't go using your sweet words to break girls hearts, you hear me."

"Loud and clear mam" I replied. My mom was the only person who was immune to my charm. I think it's because of her actual love.

...

I left my mom's room in the evening, I spent time with her for the whole day until she gradually drifted off to sleep in my arms, yes my arms. You gotta problem? I was going on a trip and it might be awhile before I ever see her again, so I cherished every moment I got to spend with her. She's a really great woman.

Elder Mo, would be in charge during my absence of course Xiao Lang would be keeping a close eye on him. Xiao Lang Was The second strongest person in whole of heavenly plateau city. Second to only me as he was now at the 5-star black gold rank, he would soon breakthrough into the legend rank. So I could leave matters concerning safety into his hands….well after the inscriptions and arrays that have been set throughout the the whole city.

* * *

In the whole year I spent travelling, I went around the world to widen my views and gain new experiences. From the grilling deserts of the east, to the freezing cold regions of the north, the the peaceful waters of the south and now back to the forests and mountains of the west. I met humanoid beings that turned Fantasy into reality. Hey I even hooked up with an elf chick(high five), lemme just say this now, elves aren't as pure as portrayed. What a time to be alive. I saw unexplainable sights, like the floating city of the blubs(heh) yes, you heard right, they were bubble like beings in bubble like floating cities, absolutely peaceful and literally very colourful guys.

I experienced absolutely exiting and interesting things, I gained knowledge on many fields, vastly expanding my encyclopedia and my own knowledge pool, while further consolidating my understanding of laws. I found very helpful artefacts and treasures, some being wearable like the piercing on my ears and some being inscriptions like the silver bands inscription tattoos on my arms. All the while slowly raising my cultivation even with the restrictions from the heavens will. I was now at the demigod rank equivalent to 5-Star legend rank.

I was currently in an underground network of narrow tunnels that led to the nether realm. I obtained the map from my family back when they were in cahoots with the dark guild.

The tunnels were buried deep under a massive mountain. The cold and damp pathway was littered with the decaying bones of corpses, and the stench of rotting fossils. The dark tunnel posed no threat to me, I could clearly see in the dark as though it were day. I would soon reach my destination.

Why was I going to the nether realm?(saying that makes me think about Mortal Kombat alot) Well, it's so I could get to the draconic ruins realm. The world above this one, where the real higher powers reside and the only way to do that was to get accepted as a disciple to those higher ups. The nether master would hold a competition in which he would choose various disciples to take with him to the higher realm, and if I wanted to not get left behind then it was a crucial step I had to take.

A barrier was between the end of the tunnel and the entrance to the nether realm, I didn't have to break it, that would draw too much attention. Integrating with the shadow devil, I teleported to the other side of the barrier. I had something a lot of people in this world seemed to be short of, common sense. Demon spirits can do much more than just fight, they have very useful abilities only if you'd take your time to figure it out.

After walking for a while, A scene that looked straight out of a movie unfolded before me. A vast burning barren land that looked gloomy, red glowing lava they flowed through snake like cracks were the only natural light source in this place, white fumes formed clouds above the volcanic vents. The smell of sulfur was enough to overwhelm the senses.

I saw the abundant dark energy that filled this place, it was almost perfect for my cultivation. But I couldn't waste time right now first I had to get the spiritual origin fruit

The Spiritual Origin Fruit was a very rare item that grew in places with abundant dark energy. From my meta knowledge I knew that Nie Li and his crew would gather most of them, but not before I did. The fruit contains an extremely well-refined energy that would be very beneficial for cultivation.

And then there was the Nine-Layered Deathlands which could normally only be accessed at the first level before any other level became available. However, in three days from now, the seventh layer of the Nine-Layered Deathlands will open. When it does, it will be possible to enter directly through the seventh floor.

But there was something I wanted to acquire before I stepped into the seventh layer.

...

The entrance to the first level of the Nine-Layered Deathlands was a long winding road that lead into a very dense fog.  
Everything was shrouded in thick layers of fog, that would have severely limited my vision but that wasn't the case. I could see through the fog, yeah my eyes are that great. Illusions can't affect me. I could see the discarded armours on the floor and dried bones. There were some people who yelled out the names of friends because they got lost in the fog.

I easily avoided everyone and rushed towards the first spiritual origin fruit I found. It was highly likely that I would meet Nie Li and his crew here, you know what they say, enemies meet on narrow roads.

….

11\. That's the number of spiritual origin fruits I was able to acquire, I was basically invisible since I merged with ghost. I did spot Nie Li and the team but now wasn't the right time to confront them, that would be soon enough, very, very soon.

In the depths of the Nine-Layered Deathlands' first layer  
A terrifying roar sounded out all through the first layer of the Deathlands as the entire ground tremored. The atmosphere darkened and turned gloomy as a gigantic tomb arose from the depths and with it a giant skeleton. A murderous aura radiated from the tomb as more skeletons rose from the ground, their hostility was clearly felt. The giant skeleton had a bone armour that would alternate between spikes, swords and wings.

I was going to get the death god's law. Nope, not leaving this opportunity to the MC.

The giant skeleton floated above the tomb and it would turn it's fiery sinister eyes to attack every approaching individual. The demigod rank experts were busily held up with the skeleton, they were trying to get the divine spark of the death god which would allow them to break through.

Nie Li and his crew stood some meters away from the battle ground, they never noticed me as I went past them. It's not like they ever could, not when I was integrated with a now strengthened ghost the shadow devil. Not even the skeleton noticed me as I floated past it to reach the tomb entrance. My tracks were totally hidden.

On the tomb entrance was an overly complex and ancient inscription pattern, I could open it but that would be stupid since I would basically giving everyone free access. No, what I did was add layers of traps on to the inscriptions, any single input from anyone including myself would result in an explosion. Why? When the mc tries to open the tomb it would result in an explosion, buying me time.

So how would I get in? I activated ghost's intangibility and simply phased through the entrance. Heaven's pawn really was dumb, he had such a demon spirit but barely made use of it. All he did was hoard treasure but barely actually used them.

I moved through all the traps without triggering a single one as I made my way down the stairs, heading deeper into the tomb. I could see the congregation of death energy gathered at deepest parts of the tomb.

…...

Reaching the deepest parts of the tomb, I saw the floating heart filled with death energy, this must be where the death god is. And that was when a hoarse loud voice sounded through the cave.

"Hya! Hya! haaaaa! I never thought that anyone would actually be able to enter this place. You think that this tomb is where I hid my treasures? This ancient tomb is actually my real body! By swallowing you, I can gradually restore my Divine Spark. Ming Fei, you've been trying to restrain me, but that's impossible! My Law of Death is on an even higher level to your Law of Nether!"

Guess this is it.

"Oh, No, I've been caught! If it shoots death energy at me I would definitely die!" I didn't even put essence to my acting. This was just a dumb piece of consciousness and not the actual death god.

"Ha ha haaaaa! Take this!" it shot a pure concentrated beam of death energy at me. My void sphere instantly began to devour the laws and I began to understand it.

 _Boom!_ An explosion occurred, it was most likely caused by the inscriptions I laid on the tomb entrance. The other experts were quickly closing in on my position.

So I raised my acting by a level. "Ahh! I have to escape! If it shoots me another concentrated shot my soul would definitely dissolve and it would get stronger!" I said it loud enough for the consciousness to hear.

"Hya haha! You cannot escape! Perish and become nutrients for my soul!" an even larger blast was shot directly into my soul realm. A massive death aura coalesced on my form as it began to corrode my clothes. But I was smiling, my void sphere greedily sucked in the death laws.

"Look out!" the demigod experts who came in with the mc got trapped in the energy bindings. The vigorously attacked the death god but it was for naught as it continued to maniacally laugh.

I was understanding the law of death, I slowly comprehended parts of it. Death went into the void and it was absorbed and assimilated. The law of death was absolutely compatible with the abyss, I understood. I saw ways that it interacted with reality. It left me dumbstruck as to how the mc and the death god wasted such power and potential. This is the law of death! Do you understand what I mean when I say death? Even the universe dies and the one to wield these laws didn't even use half of its abilities. They used it for stupid stuff like growing bone armour and absorbing soul energy, no, death was much more than that. Even with the little portion of it that I understood, I knew outstanding ways to utilize it. Maybe it was the way it was assimilated into my primordial chaos and dark laws or it was just that no one really took time to look deeper into their powers.

When I opened my eyes, I could see the end points of things. The threads that kept them alive and where to cut to kill them. The death point, it was a micro red spot that would spell the demise of any loving being. The death point of concepts weren't stationary and sometimes they wouldn't even appear, I got this just from my understanding of death and these people wasted such power.

"In the presence of me, the Death God, you dare to behave so atrociously! You're seeking death!" Dark tendrils shot towards me, they were all absorbed into my void sphere.

"Impossible! How did you comprehend the law!" (you know I won't tell you) the death god roared out as massive hands made of pure death energy shot towards me. "Die! I am the true god of death! You imposter, you deserve to die!"

"Youth, watch out!" some of the demigod experts warned.

Looking at the consciousness I spoke "You're useless, so useless, You bring shame to grim reapers throughout the universe" I struck my hands out and drew in the death energy that made up the giant arms. I absorbed it till it just became wisps of death energy, my void sphere constantly rotated sucking it all in.

"Just who is that youth?" Xiao Yu questioned. As he slashed through dark tendrils.

"He looks familiar but I don't know why" Nie Li answered feeling unsettled.

"This is impossible! I am the God of Death and have been for tens of thousands of years! How could your comprehension of the Law of Death possibly surpass mine?" The consciousness roared out as a rain of bone spikes fell on me. You see the stupid shit I talked about? You're using death to make simple bone spikes, of all the things you could do with death, you made bone spikes.

"Don't expect me to answer your questions" my comprehension is way above yours and all I spent was mere seconds understanding it.

"This is impossible! How can this be?! I will not submit to it!" The Death God roared hysterically. You'd think that it would have a bit of dignity.

"Your death is inevitable" ironic wasn't it, A death god, dying (heh). I slowly approached the floating heart. A network Veins ran all over it, dark energy pulsated around it's form. I stabbed through its death point with my sword. Devourer swallowed the heart and all its energy. I saw the residual laws of death come rushing into my abyss vortex. The death god and all his concepts were absorbed into my void. I felt satisfied but not full.

During this time, the rest of the Demigod rank experts broke free of their bindings and walked up to me. As they remembered the scene that had just occurred, lingering fear resurfaced in their hearts. Although they were slightly unsure of what they had just happened, they were at least certain of the one who had saved them.

"Thanks for your help young master!"

"Many thanks to the young master for your rescue. My Dragonchant Family will forever remember this grace. If the young master has any task he wishes us to complete, we will definitely do our best!"

"The same goes for my Fiery Elf clan. Many thanks to the young master for your rescue. If young master has any request, we are also willing to serve."

The Demigod rank experts were all masters in combat. Aside from the fact that Shen Yue had saved them, they were also aware and in awe of his terrifying strength. In the future, what heights he would reach in his cultivation? If they could build a positive relationship with such an expert, it would definitely benefit them in the future.

I knew of their thoughts.

"Then I'll have to trouble you for temporary accommodations." I smiled.

"No problem at all young master, you're welcome to my Dragonchant Family house

"It's the same for me as well"

Now I have a place to stay for the meantime

"Then I'll have to trouble you all" I lightly laughed. We left the collapsing tomb.

…

Outside this tomb, several Demigod rank experts had finally dealt with the huge skeleton. One Demigod rank expert had spent tremendous effort to get his hands on the skeleton's half Divine Spark. Just as he was drowned in joy, the half of the Divine Spark in his hand shattered into pieces and disintegrated into powder.

"Damn! Got tricked!" That Demigod rank expert cursed. He turned his head and saw the tomb crumbling in the wind.  
All of this seemed like an illusion!

"Damn, could this have been an apparition?"  
All that wasted effort! The Demigod rank experts could only leave in irritation.

Walking out of the tomb Nie Li's crew came to welcome him.

"Nie Li, are you alright" Yi Ziyun checked up on him like a nurse. Xiao Ning'Er dusted his clothes and the guys looked up to him in worship.

Turning her gaze back she saw me, there was a moment of pause between our gazes. "Nie Li who's that? I felt like I've seen him somewhere" I heard her whisper.

"Wow did I change that much?" I asked walking up to them. "You guys really don't recognize me do you. Well I did become so much more handsome" That drew all their attention.

Xiao Yu stood with a inquisitive gaze.

"oh, Ziyun I guess you're not my wife anymore right?" I said with a dazzling smile.

Both girls blushed before realization dawned on their faces.

"Shen Yue!?" Nie Li shouted out disbelievingly. Oh man I loved the look on their faces.

"Since you seem to have matters to finish here, we'll bid our farewells now!" The Demigod rank experts cupped their hands in salute and left us to our matter.

"What do you want you bastard! You and your families are all traitors! Leave now or el-"

"Would you shut the fuck up. My goodness, I can't tell if you're talking from your mouth or out of your assistance with all the shit you're spitting" I said rubbing my brows, was he always this annoying?

"pfftt- sorry" one of the guys in his crew laughed.

Well let's mess with them some more.

"What did you guys do to yourselves. You have a soul brand over your souls and it's all connected to him." I pointed at the mc. "You don't understand do you? You're slaves to him, you will follow all his orders without even knowing about it. Tell me, has anyone of you ever gone against his orders since you got this soul brand? You all look up to him with worship like a pet would to it's master. He can control you and you wouldn't even have a way of resisting it." their faces began to pale as heaven's pawn face was full of anger.

Xiao Yu had a pondering look on her face.

"Lies, Nie Li would never do that to us!" Ziyun affirmed loudly.

"Really? Tell me, did any of you give him permission to put these things on your souls? I thought so" at first it was a joke but now that I think about it, I took a better look at the soul array and I wasn't that far from the truth. Heavens' pawn really was a bastard.

"Yinyang blast x10!" unable to hold his anger anymore, he merged into his panda form and shot a massive blast of energy at me.

 _Slice_ that was the only sound heard before the energy blast disappeared into thin air. Not a single one of them knew what happened, I caused the death of the blast and absorbed it into the sword. This bastard was trying to kill me. Heh, too late.

Devourer was a single cm from his windpipe. I encompassed him in abyss aura, he was paralyzed in fear, this was the primal instinct of all things to fear the great unknown. The others paled and had trouble breathing.

"Don't fuck with me heavens' pawn, I'm not a stepping stone, I am the rock that will not only break but crush you." I could kill him here but who's going to do all his mc shit? No, I will devour his plot armour and that would be the day of reckoning.

Putting away my sword and retracting my aura, I turned my back on them and started walking. "You guys should've thought more on who to trust"

"Oh and heavens' pawn" feeling his hostile gaze on me, I gave him the same middle finger I gave to the heavens.

That felt really good.

* * *

Above the dark skies a silhouette of a giant door could be vaguely seen as law energy began to materialise.

This was the door to the Nine-Layered Deathlands.  
Upon observing my surroundings, I observed the multitudes of experts up in the sky getting ready to charge in at anytime. On the ground, were the many Black Gold rank experts, amounting to tens of thousands. All these gathered experts came here to participate in this competition. It was an opportunity they couldn't miss out on.

The huge door in the sky completed its gradual materialisation and a mysterious vortex appeared on it.

"The gate to the seventh layer has finally opened!"

"Let's go!"

They yelled out in excitement, a great race took place as experts rushed to get into the door. Yes, the weakest ones were trampled to death underfoot. It's a hard world, only the fittest survive.

Leaping through the doors, it was like moving through a speeding a tunnel of images. Desolate landscapes zipped past me, I suppose those were the first six levels of the deathlands. After a moment of disorientation an inscription pattern appeared below my feet allowing me and countless others to float above deep ravines that covered the ground. I immediately recorded the pattern, it was useful in the way it acted.

Several speeding figures appeared in the air and proudly stood before us. They were armed to the teeth. The giant black wings radiated a form of tangible pressure, they seemed almost as angels of death.

They should be the servants of the Master of the Nether Realm.

One servant's voice coldly spread throughout the seventh layer, the arrogance in it was not hidden "We have just received orders from the Master of the Nether Realm. According to the previous disciple selections, there are usually large numbers of deaths in the testing process. However, this time, we will hold a special test that will spare many lives through the seventh and eighth layers. All of you should rejoice and thank the Master of the Nether Realm for being so merciful!"

Heh, what bastards. While the others fervently celebrated, I silently laughed. The fatality rate was too high during the past tests and now they actually needed people so they instead just cut it short. I remember that a war should have just been fought in the higher realms, and the human side lost a lot of their members, so they now needed to fill those missing spots. It had nothing to do with generosity.

"The test begins!" One of the servants waved his hands and the Law Energy that gathered in the sky suddenly split into tens of thousands of pieces. One fragment landed in front of each person and gradually formed into a water ball that was roughly the size of a person's head. The water balls were transparent, however, there were fine threads running through them. They looked really similar to the toys the blubs use. Heh.

"This is the Sphere of Reverse Images. You are to expand the spheres by injecting your Soul Force or Law Energy along the fine threads inside. If you stray from the threads, the water spheres will explode. If you can extend the diameter by one foot, you pass. Those who are unable to accomplish this will be rejected!" another servant spoke condescendingly.

All these things tested were fine control of energy. The blubs used it to teach kids on how to maintain their forms. A large number of explosions were heard as white lights flashed signalling the disqualification of others.

I sent my energy into the bubble ball and made it expand. Growing large and then making it grow smaller, I altered it's shapes to different ones such as stars cubes and ovals.

At the end of the test only a quarter of the original numbers remained.

"All of you still here have passed the first test. Next, I will send all of you to the eighth layer of the Nine-Layered Deathlands. Once there, someone else will conduct the second test!" at the end of his voice I was once again transported to a different landscape.

It was desolate flaming wasteland, dry cracks covered the ground and through the cracks, flames that rose and licked the sky. The scorching heat was very much noticed.

A servant with larger form and golden Wings stood over us. The servant swept his eyes over the few thousand people as he coldly said, "Although there will be no deaths in this round, still beware! This is the second stage! If you are careless, you may become permanently crippled! In this wasteland, there is a Black Infernal Tower. It is a tower that has been left behind by a powerful expert."  
"Inside that tower are supreme black flames and all kinds of demonic beasts. Although the demonic beasts have been chained, they can still discharge powerful energy. You are to cultivate yourselves inside that environment for ten days. Those who can reach the anatta mental state 1 of cultivation will have passed the test!"

…

The temperature of the black flames increased in relation to the distance closest to the tower. It was an almost funny sight watching people burst into flames, like walking popcorn. "Ahhh!" there goes another one. The flames burn not only your body but your soul as well. But being able to withstand the flames would further advance your cultivation and help your soul grow stronger. My abyss vortex was gluttony incarnate as the energy of the flames around me were being sucked into it.

…..

I did run into Nie Li and his crew but I left them back at the first level. The pressure from the black flames of the first four floors couldn't obstruct me, as the energy in it was being sucked into my soul realm by abyss vortex. I was peacefully laying down on the 7th floor just lazing around. I didn't have to do much anyways the void sphere was passively absorbing tremendous amounts of energy. The annata mental state? I already achieved that since the very first day. It was a while back when I heard explosions from the 5th floor heavens' pawn must have had his fight with the demon lord guy. Well things have been boring lately but I knew that was about to change.

A pure devilish aura slowly approached the entrance of the seventh floor and with it, a young man dressed in white robes who looked pure in contrast to his devil aura. I saw his true appearance, the immense pain he was going through. I saw the flames which licked at his cracked but still strong soul. It was the so called "demon lord".

Setting his sights on me he just had a thin smile on his face and sent me a nod. I don't know why he's acting civil to me but I suspect it had something to do with my dark aura as well. I just closed my eyes and went back to meditating that was until he sat right next to me. Of all the places he could've chosen, it had to be close to me.

" _Sigh_ do you need something?" I asked with bored tone.

Smiling at me he answered "Nothing at all, this is just the best meditation spot." I don't know what this guy wants but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

…..

Today would be the deadline of the 10 day period for reaching the mental state.

"Hey, you're pretty good company" the demon lord said. Yea, well it's been just the two of us here for the past few days. So we've basically interacted with each other. The guy isn't so bad when you actually talk to him.

"Well, you're not so bad yourself"

"If you were a woman I'd marry you" he mumbled.

My sweat turned cold, the air stilled and after a moment of awkward silence I asked "What?" what the shit did I just hear? Maybe I heard wrong. This isn't a BL story. I absolutely must have heard wrong.

"I just said that You're a good man, I'm happy to have met you" that doesn't make it any less weird but it's better than what I thought I heard.

How do I even begin to answer that– Looks like I wouldn't have to. I was wrapped up in a white light as the inscription pattern came to live. I disappeared into a tunnel of light that was all too familiar. The test had officially ended and we should be heading to the gardens where the nether master was.

* * *

Materialising from thin air we landed in a garden.

It was a fine garden, with flowers blossoming in every corner. The entire scene was extremely aesthetic, disconnected from the barren wastelands of the lower floors.

Seven people stood before us. These seven people all emitted terrifying and powerful auras.

The one black robed expert from among the seven stepped forward "It's nice to meet you all. I am the Master of the Nether Realm that you all have no doubt heard of…"

The Master of the Nether Realm looked everyone over and casually smiled. "All of you are talents that we have chosen from within the Nether Realm. Perhaps you are still unsure of your futures. But from now on, all of you will be introduced to a whole new domain."

"This world that we currently reside in is called the Tiny World. It is only a small portion of the Draconic Ruins Realm. Furthermore, the Legend rank that you all have praised is only the beginning of true cultivation. Above Legend rank, there is still Heavenly Fate, Heavenly Star, Heavenly Axis, Dao of the Dragon, and Martial Ancestor." he added.

He went on to speak of how we were so privileged to have this opportunity, how lucky we are to be noticed by experts like them, how this and how that. These cunning people were not so subtlety using physiological attacks, telling us how weak and insignificant they saw us. And with our talents

The Nether Master's gaze swept over everyone. "The six experts here have the same motive as me. They are also experts born in the Tiny World. Each of you have already been chosen to become a disciple of these experts. If you are willing to establish a master and disciple relationship and bear the Soul Seal, then your master will bring you to the Draconic Ruins Realm. From there, you will join various sects, learn higher level cultivation techniques, and become supreme experts!" A soul seal is something I can't have on me. I mean its actually impossible for it to be on my soul, the seal would be devoured by the void sphere. And I don't trust anyone enough for me to put a binding on my soul nor will I ever. One of the artefacts I acquired on my journey would suffice for the situation.

Suddenly, Cang Ming stood out from the sidelines, bowed, and asked, "Esteemed lord, I would like to ask as who will be our master? Are we going to choose our own master?"  
The Nether Master shook his head and said, "You master has already been decided. If any of you are unwilling, you are permitted to leave!"

See, you're deprived of the right to actually choose.

"After you have become a disciple, your master will explain to you in detail the situation regarding the Draconic Ruins Realm. However, all I have to say now is that no matter which sect you enter, all of you originate from the Tiny World. A person should never forget their origin nor betray their master! Otherwise, we will do all in our power to kill you personally!" he said with a murderous tone. What a bastard.

…

The nether master pointed at me, heavens pawn(Nie Li) and his accompanying lackey(Lu Pao) "You, you, and you come here! From now onwards, you are my disciples." well, narrow paths and enemies. Walking towards the netheraster Nie li would occasionally look at me with an indifferent gaze but would avoid my eyes. I could feel his anger and hatred towards me, those couldn't be hidden from my sight.

If the events had gone according to cannon, then a middle aged man would have taken my current spot. But I was rather chosen.

After placing soul seals on the two of them, it was my turn to receive it as well. Placing two fingers on my forehead he inserted his soul force along with the soul seal pattern. The force and seal pattern successfully wrapped around my projected soul like a binding. And were were connected, I could feel the restrictions on me, and the kill switch to end me should I go against my master or his wishes. The smile on his face couldn't have been any wider. But I was the one who was really laughing on the inside. The soul seal didn't actually wrap around my soul, no, that was something similar to a virtual soul, a projected solid clone that was indistinguishable from an actual soul. I just had to form a connection to it and it would function as a proxy. So instead of restricting my own soul, it went onto the proxy virtual soul.

….

"The next three months will be time for you to bid farewell to your families. Once the portal to the Draconic Ruins Realm opens, all of you will head for the sects." The Nether Master said to everyone.

' _I guess it's Time to go home…. And see my mom'_ I really miss her. Yea, whatever I'm honest with myself. I couldn't stop the smile that surfaced on my lips at the thought of my mom.

* * *

Fireworks exploded through the air. The sounds of laughter mixed with the excited screams of the running children. I had been back in heavenly plateau city for almost three months now and I would set off for the Nether realm tomorrow. So they held a going away ceremony for me. I was really proud with the way the officials took care of the city. Everything was very well managed, the conditions of the city couldn't have been any better.

The officials were well rewarded for their hard work, I made sure of it.

…

"Mother, well this time I really will be gone for a while. And no, I'm not getting married or betrothed."

"Shen Yue, listen to mother ok. Xiao Yan, is a really good girl, why don't you just meet her?"

"No, I'm too young to be tied down. I don't mean it like that. What I'm trying to say is I'm just not interested unless they're like you mother." hah! now go against that.

"Oh, Shen Yue, why are you so naughty sometimes. Are you trying to smooth talk your mom?" She said with an amused tone, but that couldn't hide the slight blush on her cheeks.

You know now that I think about it, my mom is actually very pretty and beautiful. And she looks way younger than she should be, I mean look at her figure, all the right proportions in the right places…..I'm staring. And now it's awkward. 'Shen Yue, you might actually be a bastard.' what the heck was I just doing right now? Did I just check out my mom? There's a special place in heave- hell for me. I wanted to change the expression but I remembered that the heavens rejected me. What a life I live.

"No, I'm quite serious mother, you're such a great woman. You're the mother I need but don't deserve. I really do appreciate you and I know I don't say this enough but I love you mother, you're everything to me"

"Aww, I love you too my child. You always make me proud" she answered gently hugging me back.

…

The sunlight shone brightly. The clouds were like bundles of silk upon the blue skies, it was beautiful.

Cool winds blew past my face, the smell of grass and fresh soil drifted past my nose. I sat peacefully meditating. The energy I had accumulated was enough for me to attempt a breakthrough. I couldn't push it back anymore, it was now or never. The energy waves rushed and tumbled, my void sphere painfully expanded, it suck in the energy and began pushing past the set boundary. I controlled the energy to a fine point and pushed it against the boundary, forming a crack in it. Dark energy bombarded the boundary trying to break it down, the dark energy ate at the boundary while it relentlessly pounder at the wall. And each pound resulted in unimaginable pain, this was a very critical process. The backlash from a failure would not only be unbearable but would also push down my rank back to the bronze level and that would most likely destroy my body.

The atmosphere turned ominous as dark clouds blotted out the light of the sun, turning the bright day into a gloomy dark. My danger sense pounded on the inside of my skull like a stampede of elephants. I was very close to death, I could feel it's icy breath on the nape of my neck.

 _ **Rumble**_ the mighty roar of thunder resounded through the skies, chains of malicious blinding lightning jumped from dark cloud to dark cloud. ' _Heh, what an opportunist'_ The heavens' was trying to use this critical moment to end me once and for all. I could feel it's anger which was directed at me. I disobeyed its warning, I was trying to go against my "Fate"

The brewing storm reached its tipping point.

 **BOOM!** Massive spears of lightning shot down towards me with an unrestrained ferocity. I couldn't move, not because of the pressure but because of my current state.

 _Clack_ _crackle_ came The sounds of lightning impacting my preset Shields. I anticipated such an act, and as such I made as many preparations as I could. The golden shield blocked the first lightning spear, but another one was already on its way.

I was reaching the true start of real cultivation, qualitative Chang's would occur if I managed to successfully transition from the demigod rank into the heavenly fate realm. The danger from the lightning would soon be upon me, my shield could only block five attacks. I had to breakthrough before the shield collapsed.

The power of laws radiated through my being, it was coursing through my veins. The void sphere expanded, dark energy covered me, I never felt so alive and powerful. I was on the cusp of breaking through, the pleasure alone was greater than any other I ever had.

That was when I was hit with such soul rending pain, my mind nearly went blank. It was like someone tore through my spine with a jagged edge knife. I didn't have the strength to scream as electricity travelled through my body. I nearly forgot the lightning due to the pleasure I got from being about to breakthrough. I willed myself to concentrate on the task at hand instead of the pain, if I failed here then I would die.

And then something unexpected happened, the expanded void sphere spun so rapidly it looked stationary. The vortex ate the lightning with an unhinged veracity. It changed the energy of the lightning into one that nurtured my body and soul. The lightning meant to kill me, actually saved me. A hugh lightning pillar shot down at my form and upon contact with my body it disappeared, like a wisp of vapour under the sun. The void sphere sucked it all in and dark lightning began to crackle over my skin, in contrast to the red one in the skies.

The higher being's anger was clearly felt but I had already broken through, my soul was enhanced as was my body. I levitated off of the ground as I commanded the power in the me, the power that went against the heaven. The power that went against fate. I flew towards the clouds as it brewed a humongous ball of lightning the temperature soared causing my clothes to be ignited but that barely fazed me.

The lightning ball shot towards me and I rushed at me. _Slice_ my sword had dark lightning dancing on its dark form as it slashed through the lightning. The clouds disappeared as a dark wave of energy swallowed up the lightning and everything in its path.

I spat out a mouthful of blood as the pain set in. Most of my organs were severely wounded, they would heal but it was still painful. The expenditure for that attack wasn't something I could always make up for. I needed to stabilize my new rank to avoid future issues.

* * *

* **Booom!** The longest chapter I have ever written thus far. **Ahh** my goodness, my fingers need ice. I wrote so much I feel just nauseous looking at the screen.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter as much as I did. Shen Yue the big bag. Heh. Is now a slender looking bamf.

Can be really go against heavens' plan? Well, stay tuned to find out.

I'll post chapters for my other fics soon so expect that.

Thank you all for your well wishes and support! I am really grateful.

Don't forget to like and fav the story, a parallel universe is born every time you do. Kek. Have an awesome day.

 **Victory!***

 **R.I.P STAN LEE** , The god of joy. The marvelous man. Excelsior, oh glorious king.


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